Our commitment to environmental sustainability

Pharmacist Support exists to support our pharmacy family now and into the future. Our mission is to champion the wellbeing of our pharmacy family. We recognise that the climate crisis is a global threat, impacting the health of our pharmacy family and the whole of humanity. Tackling this threat will require significant change and we believe we have a duty to do all we can to support the global effort that is required. As a charity, we believe we have a responsibility to act on climate change and are joining others across the profession to make a commitment to consider environmental sustainability across our work.

Why are we doing this?

The research on the devastating impact of climate change is overwhelming. The UK Environment Agency has warned that the climate emergency is hitting ‘worst case scenario’ levels, which, if left unchecked, will lead to the ‘collapse of entire ecosystems, cause international famines and the infrastructure that our lifestyles are based on to fail’.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change latest assessment outlines the extent to which climate change will impact people and our planet.  As well as the physical health impacts, the report states that climate change may be exacerbating mental health issues, including stress and trauma related to extreme weather events and the loss of livelihoods and culture. In addition, the report states that the most vulnerable people and systems are observed to be disproportionately affected.

Our commitments

Strategy – Trustees at the charity formally acknowledge there is a climate crisis and have committed to consider the impact of the decisions they make on the climate in line with Pharmacist Support’s charitable objectives.

Investments – We are conscious of the impact our investment portfolio can have and we have put in place measures to achieve a more socially and environmentally responsible investment portfolio. We will work with our investment managers to:

1. measure the impact of our investments against several of the UN Sustainable Development Goals
2. ensure that their environmental, social and governance investment polices align with our values and commitment.

A key part of our commitment was to divest in fossil fuel producers by 31st December 2022. This was achieved ahead of schedule.

Working practices – We recognise that as well as our investments, other aspects of how we operate (such as our offices, IT, meetings and events) affect the environment. We commit to reviewing our internal processes and implementing a policy which will seek to reduce our environmental impact. The policy will embed the consideration of sustainability within our working practices and carefully consider the impact of our operational decisions on environmental sustainability.