NSW Health Pathology is committed to reducing its carbon footprint and our take-up of hybrid vehicles is just one example of how we’re making a difference to our environment and our bottom line.

The health of peo­ple and com­mu­ni­ties across our state goes hand in hand with the health of our plan­et and envi­ron­men­tal sus­tain­abil­i­ty is a high pri­or­i­ty here at NSW Health Pathology.

Just one exam­ple of how we’re work­ing to reduce our car­bon foot­print is the roll out of hybrid cars.

In our Strate­gic Plan – Toward 2025, NSWHP com­mit­ted to deliv­er­ing future focused infra­struc­ture and strate­gic com­mis­sion­ing and to lead­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of eco-friend­ly, sus­tain­able ser­vices and workplaces.

The NSWHP Strate­gic Lead­er­ship Team recent­ly agreed to new prin­ci­ples for our couri­er and pool vehi­cle fleet.

NSWHP com­pared pur­chase price, run­ning costs (fuel, ser­vic­ing, repairs, tyres), esti­mat­ed resale val­ue, along with the type of dri­ving, safe­ty, and kilo­me­tres trav­elled each year. The analy­sis found that a hybrid SUV rep­re­sent­ed the best val­ue for NSWHP along with a much bet­ter out­come for the envi­ron­ment due to the low­er CO2 emis­sions of a hybrid vehicle.

This means that NSWHP will tran­si­tion to hybrid SUV vehi­cles when they require replace­ment. All vehi­cles will be owned by NSWHP and will even­tu­al­ly have decals of our Abo­rig­i­nal art­work and mes­sages about low­er­ing envi­ron­men­tal impact.  Vehi­cles will also be moved between sites as required to ensure more even use across the whole fleet.

Paul Dunn, Direc­tor of Finance and Cor­po­rate Ser­vices, said it will ensure low­er over­all costs for the organ­i­sa­tion and very impor­tant­ly low­er envi­ron­men­tal impact.

“Our vehi­cle fleet is now 30% hybrid, and every new vehi­cle is a hybrid,” he said.

“They are a very pop­u­lar choice for our staff and have a great resale value.

“We are already see­ing a reduc­tion in over­all fuel con­sump­tion, of up to 8%, despite increased kilo­me­tres, which could not have come at a bet­ter time with ris­ing fuel prices.”

Mr Dunn said NSWHP is now work­ing to pilot elec­tric vehi­cles at the Foren­sic and Ana­lyt­i­cal Sci­ence Ser­vice (FASS).

“The chal­lenges there are find­ing the right vehi­cle with enough stor­age capac­i­ty to be a couri­er vehi­cle, as well as the long lead times for vehi­cles and infrastructure.”

The great news for future pur­chas­ing is that car options that deliv­er an over­all reduc­tion in the envi­ron­men­tal impact of the fleet are more avail­able than ever.

So next time you see a NSWHP car, look for the hybrid tag and know that efforts are being made with­in our organ­i­sa­tion to green our fleet!

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