Chiltern Music Therapy is an employee owned social enterprise that provides music therapy and community music services across England. Our office is based in Buckinghamshire, and we currently have services in 28 counties across England, seeing over 2300 clients each year. We have a team of 52 music therapists, community musicians, operational support staff and volunteers.
The world is experiencing a climate and health emergency. Climate change has been described in the Lancet as “the greatest threat to global health of the 21st century”, and on our current trajectory the World Bank predicts that by 2030 100 million people will be put back into poverty and at least an additional 250,000 deaths will occur every year. These health impacts are not felt equally, with often those least responsible for greenhouse gas emissions most at risk of their effects.
Healthcare systems themselves can often contribute to climate change, undermining their efforts to improve and maintain the health of the populations they serve. At Chiltern Music Therapy we will not stand on the sidelines, and have a responsibility to act that is encapsulated by our core value of care:
“Above all, we care. Casting biases and judgements aside, we care equally and inclusively for everyone who comes our way. Going above and beyond, we make space to care for others, in the same way we would wish to be cared for.”
This of course includes our planet and the world in which we all live. Therefore we are making a commitment to reduce our impact on the environment, and this Policy and accompanying Action Plan outlines how this will be done.
Chiltern are committed to supporting the 2015 Paris Agreement to limit global temperature rise to well below 2°C against pre-industrial levels. In making this commitment, we recognise that our ability to improve our environmental impact depends on our knowledge of what is happening, and our capacity to change and influence this. Therefore we have decided that an initial 12 month assessment of our environmental performance will be necessary, after which we will set specific, measurable indicators and continue to monitor areas for improvement. Specific details are outlined in the Environmental Action Plan.
In 2020 the NHS became the first National Health Service to make a net zero commitment by announcing its commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2040, and we commit to being more ambitious than this.
Chiltern also acknowledge that well-meaning environmental ambitions can sometimes inadvertently penalise groups who may be socially disadvantaged, and will work to ensure that this is not the case with this policy.
We recognise that we have an environmental impact in the following areas:
We will assess our environmental performance over the next 12 months, using the methods described in the Environmental Action Plan. In Summer 2022 we will set a target of pre-2040 for becoming carbon net-zero with specific, measurable indicators, and continue to monitor areas for improvement.
This Policy will be reviewed by the Environmental and Sustainability Lead every 12 months, with input from the Outer Circle. The Environmental Action Plan will be reviewed by the Environmental & Sustainability Lead every 6 months.