One of the most damning statistics in recent times is if the global healthcare sector were a country, it would be the fifth largest contributor to climate change¹. Meanwhile, going further than the greenhouse gas emissions, the NHS providers in England produce 400 loaded jumbo jets of clinical waste every year on its own². Sustainability and its role in the healthcare environment is a hot topic. However, it’s not just the greenhouse gas emissions and waste production that need to be considered; air pollution, water pollution, and reduction in biodiversity all contribute detrimentally to population health. The health risks these environmental concerns contribute towards in this non-exhaustive list include acute and chronic respiratory conditions, cardiovascular conditions, neurological conditions, and deaths related to adverse weather events or extreme hot and cold weather³.

The consequences of healthcare for sustainability are immense, but healthcare can’t disappear; it has to evolve in how it is supplied, managed and delivered. As healthcare institutions begin to adopt sustainable mindsets, we see clear approaches to the challenge across Europe, such as:

• 

  University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust, which reduced the use of carbon-intensive desflurane, an anaesthetic gas which has 20 times the environmental impact of other less harmful greenhouse gases. Completed over a 2-year period, the hospital is now saving the equivalent of 30,000kg CO₂ per month.

• 

  University Clinic Bonn in Germany has introduced a joint recycling programme for medical device packaging.

• 

  In 2020, the Climate Alliance was created in Denmark as a partnership between all 98 municipalities and their five regions with a goal for all public hospitals to reduce their CO₂ emissions from energy and transport by 75% by 2030 compared to 2018 levels.

• 

  In London, Great Ormond Street Hospital improved hand hygiene policies and empowered staff to use gloves appropriately, leading to a reduction of more than 21 tonnes of waste in 10 months.

• 

  In Skaraborg Hospital in Sweden, they installed approximately 7,000 square meters of solar cell panels in the hospital's parking area as well as energy-efficient windows, walls and ceilings. This has led to the building using a quarter as much energy as an average hospital building.

One of the biggest stakeholders and contributors to a hospital’s sustainability touch points are medical suppliers. In 2020, the NHS’ supply chain represented 66% of the NHS’ total overall carbon emissions⁴. Many of the touch points at a hospital involve suppliers and often with a shared responsibility for how the transaction or interaction takes place. As sustainability is a shared goal, partnerships and collaboration throughout the supply chain are the only way to transform healthcare into a future-ready industry.

<sup>REFERENCES
1. https://global.noharm.org/focus/climate/health-care-climate-footprint-report
2. https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-read/nhs-clinical-waste-strategy/
3. https://www.nice.org.uk/about/who-we-are/sustainability
4. https://www.england.nhs.uk/ahp/greener-ahp-hub/specific-areas-for-consideration/reducing-the-environmental-impact-of-equipment-medicines-and-resources/</sup>