Our Sustainability Vision and Mission

Surrey Physio’s first environmental policy was created in 2011 and aligned with a general increase in awareness about the risks to our environment.

The directors at Surrey Physio have always been keen to ensure that we follow good practice and legislation. We feel the environment is important, and believe that all businesses should play a part to ensure that waste is minimised and recycled, energy consumption is minimised, and pollution is reduced.

Our Vision: to become a leading green physiotherapy group in the UK, merging exceptional patient care with eco-friendly practices and community engagement.

Our Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) mission: we are making a commitment to integrating environmental, social, and governance factors into our business strategy, operations, and interactions with stakeholders. This mission emphasises sustainable growth, ethical practices, and long-term value creation, while actively addressing Surrey Physio’s impact on the environment, our responsibilities towards society, and our commitment to transparent and ethical governance.

Sustainable development is about meeting society’s needs today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs – often referred to as good corporate citizenship or corporate social responsibility. With climate change clearly the most serious global environmental threat, sustainability and carbon reduction are becoming key corporate responsibilities for all organisations.

The challenge has been set for the NHS and ourselves, Surrey Physio, to adopt sustainable business practices, particularly carbon reduction, and promote the good citizenship model. The NHS Carbon Reduction Strategy for England published by the NHS Sustainable Development Unit sets out the vision, responsibilities and key actions for all NHS organisations.

As an organisation with over 100 registered healthcare professionals, our training has equipped us with the skills needed to find good health, prevent poor health, diagnose conditions, and provide rehabilitative care for the unwell, injured, and sick. The fact that we are healthcare professionals is important, because we know that people's health can be negatively impacted on environmental issues. A common issue in London is air pollution. It is the cause of 1 in 20 deaths in the UK (Clugston, 2021). Air pollution is just one factor, but another key issue is deprivation, certainly in some parts of London where we provide physiotherapy and social prescribing. Areas such as North Croydon, Addington, Lambeth, Barking and Dagenham, and Tooting have challenging demographics where we see significant health inequalities that impact people's health and wellbeing. Our goal was to link community services, charities, and classes to the GP surgeries, through social prescribing. Not only that, but during the first wave of COVID-19, we helped set up vaccination centres. Our team managed one vaccination centre at Fairfield Halls in Croydon, and we vaccinated 23,000 people in Balham, Putney, Streatham, Barking, Dagenham, Croydon, Aldershot and Farnborough (aligning with vaccination goals set by the UN).

Surrey Physio's core ethos is about prevention and addressing health inequalities to improve sustainability.

Our overall mission: to improve the lives of patients in the communities where we live and work.