Reducing Healthcare Carbon Emissions: A Primer for a Greener Future

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), through the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), has released a primer to help healthcare organizations reduce their carbon footprint and protect communities from climate threats. The primer, titled "Reducing Healthcare Carbon Emissions: A Primer on Measures and Actions to Mitigate Climate Change," features a prioritized set of measures and potential interventions to reduce healthcare's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. With the climate crisis being the most significant public health challenge of the 21st century, healthcare organizations must develop approaches to care that meet the climate health needs of disproportionately affected communities and rapidly reduce their contributions to environmental emissions.

Key Takeaways:

The AHRQ primer highlights six domains contributing to GHG emissions in healthcare: building energy, transportation, anesthetic gas, pharmaceuticals & chemicals, medical devices & supplies, and food.
The primer identifies core (fundamental) and elective measures to track progress in and critical strategies for reducing GHG in each domain.
Healthcare organizations can reduce GHG emissions by implementing measures such as reducing building energy consumption, switching to electric vehicles, and using energy-efficient medical devices.
The primer features vignettes of what health systems have done to reduce GHG and includes a collection of resources and tools to support implementation.
The AHRQ Director, Robert Otto Valdez, Ph.D., M.H.S.A., emphasizes that climate change is a major threat to human health, with acute impacts for people who have been marginalized across the United States and around the world.
The primer is being released to coincide with the Accelerating Healthcare Sector Action on Climate Change and Health Equity webinar series sponsored by HHS' Office of Climate Change and Health Equity.

Statistics:

The Biden-Harris Administration has set clear goals for the country to cut greenhouse emissions in half in the next 8 years, then move quickly to net zero before 2050, as outlined in the Federal Sustainability Plan.
Healthcare is both a significant contributor to climate change and responsible for managing the adverse impact of climate change on health.
The primer emphasizes the importance of rapidly reducing healthcare's contributions to environmental emissions to mitigate the climate crisis.

Sources:

Agency for Healthcare Research Quality (AHRQ)
Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (HHS' Office of Climate Change and Health Equity)
Agency for Healthcare Research [Category: Healthcare, ESG, New Offerings]