Evaluating a hospital’s carbon footprint - A method using energy, materials and financial data

Abstract

Background: Healthcare systems have to prepare for climate change’s health impact, while reducing healthcare’s contribution to global warming. Most evaluations of healthcare’s greenhouse gas emissions involve national level methodologies.
Objective: As sustainability metrics become a key factor in hospital management, the paper describes a method for quantifying emissions at a large tertiary care hospital in Singapore.
Methods: Hospital operational and financial data was used to determine the greenhouse gas effect of the hospital. Emission factors from government and academic sources were used for on-site and purchased energy emissions. Spend based emission factors from the environmentally-extended multiregional input-output (EE-MRIO) Eora database were used for other indirect emissions. This provided the total carbon footprint across the various scopes.
Results: The hospital had an annual carbon footprint of 245,962 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e). Scope 1 emissions accounted for 4,223 tonnes of CO₂e, scope 2 for 38,380 tonnes of CO₂e and scope 3 for 165,190 tonnes of CO₂e. Operating carbon totalled 207,793 tonnes of CO₂e, and 38,169 tonnes of scope 3 CO₂e was attributed to capital expenditure projects. Medical equipment, pharmaceutical supplies and electricity were the largest contributors to the hospital’s carbon footprint.
Conclusions: Identifying key areas contributing to emissions can enable targeted approaches in reducing a hospital’s carbon footprint, better preparing the hospital as the carbon economy evolves to include the healthcare sector.

Keywords

Carbon accounting / Sustainability / Healthcare carbon footprint

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank our colleagues at National University Health Systems (NUHS) for the support in our drive to achieve sustainable healthcare. The information provided by our colleagues from NUH Finance, Anaesthesia, Materials Management Department, Group Hospitality and Group Facilities Management, was crucial in deriving the carbon footprint in NUH.

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST DISCLOSURE

The authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.

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