Floods, storms, freak weather! Every day it seems the news carries stories of environmental disasters. The world is heating up, and the recent COP 26 conference in Glasgow underscored that we all have our part to play in combatting climate change by becoming more sustainable - this includes RCOT.
So what is environmental sustainability?
Put simply, environmental sustainability refers to treating the planet responsibly and recognising that, we all have a duty to avoid depleting natural resources. It’s a bit like balancing a set of scales - on one side of the scales is the greenhouse gases we put into the atmosphere, with the other side being the amount we take out – this is what is referred to as “Net Zero”.
But what does environmental sustainability mean for RCOT?
So what has environmental sustainability got to do with RCOT - quite a bit is the answer. As a professional body that represents over 35,000 members across the UK, we are in a strong position to lead on climate change both in terms of greening our business activities and supporting our members and the occupation therapy profession to do so.
So what is our vision for sustainability?
Our vision is that sustainability is recognised and embedded with the occupational therapy profession, its practice and championed by the professional body.
To support our move towards becoming greener, we have signed up to Climate Action for Associations (CAFA) to better understand the impact our business has on the environment and learn from other membership and professional bodies about how to be more environmentally friendly. CAFA is a coalition of professional and membership bodies whose goal is to strive towards a ‘net zero’ carbon footprint. They offer advice on how to do this and also measure our climate output.
The RCOT Action Plan sets out what we will do to address the three main areas of environmental sustainability: Environmental, Social and Economic commitments.
How will we become more sustainable?
So how will we become more sustainable? Well firstly we need to understand the carbon impact of our own business activities and we will engage with all our colleagues at RCOT to see where we can make a difference. An obvious one which we have already started, is making sure we don't produce printed products unnecessarily and beginning to adopt a digital first approach to our thinking – our first virtual annual conference being a great example of this.
Increasing awareness among occupational therapists of what they can do will also make a big difference to ‘balancing the scales’. Being such a diverse profession, occupational therapists work in a variety of roles across the UK. For example, occupational therapists who are involved in the prescribing of assistive aids can think about buying environmentally sustainable products. Or those that work in schools can source recycled craft materials. We want to encourage everyone to think about what they can do.
In conclusion
We are committed to learning about where the greatest impacts can be made in both our business and as a profession. We have already made some changes but know there is much more we can do. Together we can play our part in saving the planet.
See our RCOT Action Plan for what we have planned.