The health sector is responsible for more than 8% of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. Some hospitals are trying to change that.
to cut emissions in half by 2030 in a pledge coordinated by the Biden Administration. At the Aspen Ideas Festival this week, I led a discussion on the emerging push to decarbonize the health industry. It’s an important topic with lessons for businesses inside and outside of that sector.
Getting there will require a dramatic change. Shifting mindsets is hard in any industry, but it’s particularly the case in health care where practices are, at least in theory, dictated by a need to protect human health. Many items designed to protect human health, like single-use syringes and gowns, aren’t all that great for the planet. But leaders in the space say there’s opportunity despite these challenges.
In Aspen, I spoke with Seema Gandhi who serves as the medical director of sustainability at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center. Gandhi, an anesthesiologist who trained in India and the U.K., noticed that her hospital in the U.S. was using four times as much desflurane, a greenhouse gas used in inhaled anesthesia, as in the U.K. Not only does desflurane cost more, but the excess gas that isn’t inhaled is vented outside where it contributesthan other alternatives.
The health sector—like any industry—has its own quirks. But there’s a lesson for any business: don’t write off decarbonization just because you’re set in your current practices. Hospitals, of course, are only one part of health care’s carbon footprint. To truly decarbonize, it will require buy-in from medical device manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, and others. Still, hospitals can help lead the way.
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