Today’s BMJ reports on the second NHS sustainability day held on 28 March .

To celebrate, several NHS organisations planted trees to promote NHS sustainability day. The aim of the day, launched in 2012, is to encourage organisations to take action to combat climate change and to raise awareness of sustainability in the health service.

The Royal London Hospital was one of 25 sites in England to plant trees. Featured in tree planting mode were the NHS forest coordinator [yes, that’s right, an NHS forest coordinator, and you wondered why you had to wait so long to see a GP or get a hospital appointment!] at the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, a representative of the Great Outdoor Company which sponsored some of the tree planting, and the environmental manager at Barts and the London NHS Trust are .

The tree planting is part of the NHS forest initiative, coordinated by the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare, which plans to make NHS estates greener by planting one tree for every NHS employee — amounting to 1.3 million trees.

It’s not a bad idea though I wonder if, in these straitened times, there are not better things to concentrate on.

If the waste sector wants to make its mark and contribute to the greening of our hospitals, and of other healthcare facilities, planting a sponsored tree is one possible approach. No doubt there are many more.