The U.S healthcare sector is responsible for an estimated 8.5% of U.S. carbon emissions, stemming from the operations of healthcare facilities, purchased sources of energy and the industry's supply chain.
Here is how seven health systems are making an effort to cut back on climate emissions:
1. Philadelphia-based Penn Medicine is phasing out common anesthesia gas desflurane, the most potent greenhouse gas found in hospitals. Desflurane can hang in the atmosphere for 14 years, contributing to greenhouse gas emissions. Penn Medicine is taking other steps to cut back on its emissions as well. The system is turning off air-filtration systems when operating rooms are not in use overnight and on weekends and sending some of its single-use medical supplies, such as pulse oximeters and scalpels, to a plant that sanitizes and refurbishes them.
2. Edison, N.J.-based Hackensack Meridian Health hospitals are set to own the largest solar and battery energy storage system of any nonprofit provider in the country. As part of a $134 million investment in infrastructure improvements, Hackensack plans to install 50,000 U.S.-manufactured solar panels in each of its 18 hospitals. The goal is to achieve a 10% reduction in carbon emissions, a 25% decrease in electricity costs and 33% in guaranteed energy savings.
3. Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente has partnered with Vizient and the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, the Collective Healthcare Action to Reduce MedTech Emissions. Objectives of the partnership include focusing on renewable energy, product innovation, product utilization and transportation and logistics. The partnership will use a two-year road map for health systems, medtech companies and other stakeholders to work on four decarbonization goals.
4. Altamonte Springs, Fla.-based AdventHealth invested in the installation of 7,500 solar panels that are designed to save the health system an estimated $20 million over two decades. AdventHealth has vowed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electricity by 50% by 2030.
5. New Hyde Park, N.Y.-based Northwell Health plans to treat more than 500,000 pounds of medical waste, including single-use laboratory plastics, glass, personal protective equipment and sharps containers, annually as part of its goal to reduce greenhouse gas emission by 50% by 2030. Historically, the medical waste was set for landfills, transportation or autoclaving for sterilization.
6. Pittsburgh-based UPMC plans to phase out the use of the anesthetic desflurane over the next several months, eliminating it systemwide by the end of 2023.
7. Sam Smith, MD, an anesthesiologist at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, has switched from the anesthetic desflurane to cut down on his environmental impact.