Environmental footprinting in health care: a primer

Health care systems are responsible for 4–5% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.1, 2 There is increasing pressure to reduce the environmental effects of health care as more health professionals recognise its contribution to climate change.3, 4 However, measuring environmental effects and assessing progress towards decarbonisation are not trivial processes because the mechanisms driving environmental burdens are often hidden. Although much of the early focus in health has been on decarbonisation of building and transport assets, most of health care's GHG emissions occur within the supply chains that provision the health care system before the final delivery of services.5

This article is intended to serve as a beginner's introduction to the environmental footprinting techniques that can be applied to uncover health care's environmental impacts, including impacts occurring along supply chains. This article focuses on GHG emissions, but many other pollutants and environmental stressors can be assessed using these methods.