Royal North Shore Hospital’s Department of Anaesthesia is very proactive in sustainable perioperative medicine. Two of our anaesthetists, Dr Andy Lindberg and Dr Penny Hodges, are NetZero Co Leads in Anaesthesia for the Northern Sydney Local Health District. And our Clinical Nurse Educator for Anaesthesia, Erin Foulsham, is also a NetZero Lead for the district.

Our overarching principles for sustainability/carbon footprint reduction are the 3R’s – REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE – and in that order of importance.

Some examples of current projects to achieve these goals are:

• Nitrous Oxide waste/leak mitigation
• 7-day anaesthetic circuits
• Reusable metal hollow ware
• Reusable tourniquets
• “Greenies” instead of blueys
• Appropriate waste segregation
• ‘Pharmasmart’ bins for appropriate drug disposal

There’s loads more to be done in reducing our carbon footprint, so come and join us at RNSA to achieve NetZero !