HILL Dickinson is advising NHS trusts how they can cut carbon emissions and save millions of pounds a year.

The St Paul’s Square-based firm is showing organisations how they can save more than £6m a year by installing “alternative energy solutions”, such as Combined Heat and Power systems.

It has advised on contracts with a number of energy providers to implement energy efficiency programmes for NHS trusts, including the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust and Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust.

Its specialist energy team, led by partner Stephen Lansdown, is advising trusts how best to comply with the new legislation. The NHS’s Carbon Reduction Strategy says trusts need to produce 10% less carbon than their 2007 level by 2015 and match the 2007 level by 2013.

Mr Lansdown said: “Increasing hospital efficiencies is a pressing issue for NHS trusts.

“They each must decrease energy dependency, increase energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and deliver all of this with significant cost savings.

“Of course, the NHS must remain free to concentrate its efforts on patient care and managing a major infrastructure project alongside budgetary cuts could appear overwhelming.”

The total NHS carbon footprint is 18m tonnes of CO² per year. It is responsible for 3.2% of all carbon emissions, and one-quarter of all public sector emissions in England.