The Institute of Health Visiting recognises that it has a responsibility to act on climate change, and we are working to embed environmental sustainability across the organisation, beyond legal and regulatory requirements.
The team is committed to take action to ensure that current and future generations of babies, children and young people are safeguarded against the harmful impacts of the climate and environmental crisis.
We have identified four ambitions to guide our climate change work:
- Leading by example: To reduce the carbon footprint associated with the iHV, benchmarking our performance and developing an ambitious iHV plan for sustainability for the next two years in line with our recently updated Sustainability Policy.
- Advocacy: To influence policies affecting health, by advocating for ‘health equity’, children’s rights, and the reduction of harms to health caused by environmental impacts faced by babies, children and young people now and in the future.
- Supporting and equipping iHV members: To support iHV members in their health advocacy role to improve sustainability in their workplaces and improve health equity linked to environmental sustainability through their work with babies, children, families and communities.
- Supporting and equipping iHV staff: To equip iHV staff with the knowledge they need to make a positive impact, and support the iHV’s ambitions, on environmental sustainability.