Healthcare is responsible for an estimated 8.5% of all U.S. carbon emissions, while U.S. Healthcare systems account for a whopping 25% of global healthcare emissions. This is primarily due to the amount of energy and supplies required to diagnose and treat patients safely and within compliance. As a significant source of carbon emissions that play a key role in our changing climate, the healthcare sector has a responsibility to improve planetary health and reduce costs of care.
V. Dzau, R. Levine, G. Barrett, A. Witty, Decarbonizing the U.S. Health Sector — A Call to Action, New England Journal of Medicine, October 13, 2021.
At UConn Health, we promote environmental sustainability throughout the academic medical center and campus while providing a safe and comfortable atmosphere to our students, patients, faculty, providers, researcher, employees, and visitors. We continuously strive to improve environmental quality and limit carbon footprint by enhancing policies, programs, and practices through all business activities.
Our goal is to create and maintain a culture of sustainability in decision-making, planning, and action. We do the right things for the planet.
Based on the most recent available data from the State of Connecticut energy tracking program EnergyCAP, UConn Health reduced its total emissions by more than 25% from fiscal years 2018 to 2023. We continue efforts which are managed by a sustainability committee and sub groups specific to each area.
The student-run Sustainability Team at UConn Health’s annual Planetary Health Report Card graded this year a B (good) for being 13th among the 51 U.S. medical schools ranked. This is up from a C+ last year and a C- the previous year. See the full report (need link). The students manage many programs within the medical and dental schools to eliminate waste and limit carbon footprint.
The Operating Room Sustainability Team has Anesthesia providers engaged in reducing the carbon footprint in the surgical operating room suite by many ways including exclusive use of the volatile anesthesia agent with the lowest global warming potential (sevoflurane versus nitrous oxide). Equally important is the 50-75% reduction in fresh gas flows during anesthesia which markedly decreases the rate of the greenhouse gas anesthesia agents. There is significant opportunity in the operating rooms with such high volumes of materials and energy.
The Pharmacy Team has changed its process to dispense certain medications directly into the syringe rather than in a vial that later needs to be transferred into a syringe, with the unused portion wasted.
The Campus Planning Team includes sustainability efforts in all projects. Project managers work with engineers and utility companies including Eversource to optimize opportunity and incentives. They recently completed a project to add 28 new electrical vehicle charging stations in our parking garages by next year.
Logistic and Environmental Services Team diverted 1,100 pounds of waste from landfills in 2023 and 150 trees were contributed to help restore forests through the company’s Products for the Planet program.
“We welcome involvement. Everyone needs to pitch in, and every little bit helps. Please be kind to the planet and carry your efforts and enthusiasm 365 days a year.”
—John Lombardi, Director of Facilities Engineering and Sustainability, UConn Health
“The Operating Room Sustainability Team is reducing the carbon footprint in the Surgical Operating Room Suite through various measures. Our Anesthesia providers are exclusively using the volatile anesthesia agent with the lowest global warming potential (sevoflurane instead of desflurane and nitrous oxide). Equally important is the 50-75% reduction in the fresh gas flow carrying the volatile agents during anesthesia, which markedly decreases the amount of the greenhouse gas anesthesia agents released into the atmosphere. There are also significant efforts being made to reduce waste and energy consumption.”
—Dr. Adam Fischler, Anesthesiologist and Section Chief of Sustainability, UConn
