Why Dietitians are vital to the NHS Net Zero Targets

Hosted in collaboration with Sustainable Diets Specialist Group

We cannot prevent a global warming of 1.5 °C without changing the way we eat. Achieving a healthy and sustainable food future is an urgent matter that depends on global collaborative efforts. Dietitians have a critical role to play in helping to integrate sustainability into practice at speed and appropriately across sectors including the NHS, yet the majority of post registration dietitians have not been trained on this topic. Join this lunchtime webinar to hear about how some Dietitians are delivering on the green agenda with special attention given to NHS policy and guidance around sustainability and net zero and what this now means for Dietetics.

Join our expert panel guests over lunch to explore some of the big questions on sustainability in relation to Dietetics;

  • Tanya Haffner RD, Chair of the BDA Sustainable Diets Group

Tanya is a Dietitian. She is Chair of the BDA Sustainable Diets Group and CEO & strategic lead on nutrition & sustainability at MyNutriWeb & Nutrilicious Marketing & Communications.

  • Sarah Garland, Chief Sustainability Officer's Clinical Fellow 2022/23

Sarah has 17 years’ experience as a clinical Dietitian in both acute and community services and completed an MSc in Advanced Practice. She moved into Healthcare Quality Improvement in 2019, supporting colleagues to develop and deliver their quality improvement ideas, as well as leading on clinical supervision in a community healthcare provider. In September 2022 she started a 12 month clinical fellowship with the Greener NHS team at NHS England, enabling her to develop her skills and knowledge in leading sustainable healthcare practices.

  • Jo Instone, Net Zero Food Programme Dietitian

Jo has over 30 years’ experience as a dietitian in a range of clinical and non-clinical roles. In 2019, she returned to a speciality that she began her career in, food service. She spent two years working as the Lead Dietitian at NHS Supply Chain, Food developing the role of the dietitian in food procurement for the NHS. In June 2022, she became the first NHS Net Zero Food Programme Dietitian working with a team of chefs and data analysts to support NHS Trusts in England to lower the contribution that food makes to carbon emissions generated in the NHS.

  • Angeline Taylor, Renal Dietitian and Chair of BDA Renal Nutrition Specialist Group

Angeline has been a registered dietitian for 14 years and worked in the renal speciality for 11 years.  Currently chairing the Renal Nutrition Specialist group and sitting on the UKKA Sustainability committee.  Angeline has a keen interest in plant-based nutrition for those with kidney disease.  Most recently, Angeline has been working with the Plant-Based Health Professionals UK, developing three factsheets for people wanting to eat a plant-based diet at key stages of kidney disease. 

  • Liz Stockley, BDA CEO, Chair

The panel will discuss:

  • Why is food so critical to planetary health and what is the environmental impact of our current diets?    
  • How can Dietitians help to deliver on green targets and implement sustainability into practice?
  • What policies and guidelines do Dietitians need to be aware of?
  • How do we embed sustainability in different areas of clinical practice?
  • How can we hear about what other Dietitian are doing?

Webinar will be hosted on MS Teams