A HOSPITAL trust expects to claw back more than £100,000 on running costs in five years after installing power saving software on all its personal computers.

The simple initiative is one of those being showcased at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital on Wednesday as part of the UK’s first ever NHS Sustainability Day.

The event, from 11am to 3pm, includes interactive stands, where staff, visitors and patients can find out more about the trust’s green efforts and pledge to do one thing to make a difference.

Last year, around 30 per cent of PCs in the trust were left on overnight, wasting 188 tonnes of carbon, equivalent to enough electricity to power 26 homes for a year.

The new software automatically puts the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals’ computers into hibernation if they have not been used for two hours. The £20,000 a year savings will be made in electricity costs and carbon credits.

Other initiatives include free short-term loans of pedal or electric bikes to staff. Four per cent of the staff, or 200 people, now cycle to work instead of taking the car.

Another is the Hug-A-Mug scheme, which enables people to buy their own reusable mug, giving them an automatic 5p discount on every hot drink bought in the restaurant and reducing the number of disposable cups used by the trust.