Six impact drivers for sustainable healthcare

As far back as 2015, the Lancet Commission stated, “Tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century.” And it still is. Health leaders recognize this potential, as well as the crucial role environmental sustainability plays in achieving long-term population health goals.

Having said that, if healthcare were a country, it would be the world’s fifth-largest emitter of CO2, accounting for over 4% of global emissions [1] – more than the aviation or shipping sectors. This means that, as an industry, we – health technology companies, healthcare systems, suppliers and other stakeholders across the healthcare value chain – have an urgent responsibility to act.

It is time to extend the principle of First, do no harm – the very bedrock of healthcare – to the planet. The good thing is that taking better care of the planet will enable us to take better care of people and so increase our social impact. There is a lot that health technology companies like Philips can do today to help health systems reduce their environmental footprint, integrate sustainable ways of working, and realize the Quadruple Aim of better health outcomes, improved patient and staff experience, and lower cost of care. Not to mention advancing access to care.

So, what are the strategies that health systems can adopt now to help achieve these goals?

Hospitals have the highest energy intensity of all publicly funded buildings and emit 2.5 times more greenhouse gas than commercial buildings. [2]

At Philips, energy consumption during the customer use phase of our products accounts for around 80% of our total environmental impact. That’s why improving the energy efficiency of our products is a key goal of our EcoDesign program. Our Azurion image-guided therapy platform, for example, offers a 10%-plus reduction in energy consumption over its total life usage, compared to its predecessor [3].

Sustainable user behavior can also make a difference. Healthcare professionals can actively help to reduce the energy consumption of Philips’ MR systems for example, by switching to PowerSave technology when a system is not in use and in between scans.

Healthcare accounts for 10% of materials used globally every year. [5]

Some 40-50% of global CO2 emissions are attributable to materials extraction, supply, and the manufacture of equipment – often referred to as ‘embedded carbon’. Healthcare is a huge consumer of these resources. It is, therefore, crucial that we find ways to use materials for medical systems and devices in a sustainable manner.

If refurbishment is no longer a possibility, we take care of responsible end-of-life management. By recovering valuable parts, we can service older systems, maximizing lifetime value again. If that is also no longer an option, we recycle back to raw materials via local recycling networks. Over 3,000 systems were returned to Philips for responsible repurposing in 2021, as part of our drive to close the loop on all professional equipment by 2025.

By supporting the creation of virtual resources that deliver maximum value with minimum materials, digital tools and software allow us to ‘dematerialize’. In healthcare, we see this driving a shift from resource-intensive clinical facilities to networked lower-cost settings and the home, thereby expanding access to care.

Today, patients often have to attend multiple appointments for diagnosis, treatment and monitoring. This can involve repeated, sometimes arduous, journeys. The adoption of digital technology and network infrastructure supports prevention and telehealth, or ‘virtual care’, by enabling remote interaction between patients and care givers, thus avoiding the related travel and CO2 emissions.

We also see dematerialization in the form of the transition to cloud-, service- and software-based solutions, which supports savings on the materials required for on-site enterprise hardware and a reduction in CO2 emissions. Studies have shown that power consumption decreases by 84% when customers use large, centralized cloud-based data centers instead of on-premises infrastructure .

Software can also maximize the utilization of hardware. In radiology, for example, Philips PerformanceBridge helps imaging centers get more value out of their systems. This web-based, real-time data platform aggregates data from multiple sources and integrates with the hospital’s image viewer, giving staff the data they need with context. Operational data is clearly presented, making it possible to identify outliers and improvement opportunities, also in energy/material usage.

For our customers and their patients, a system’s functionality and quality of service is what matters, not the system itself. It’s all about being able to offer the best possible imaging and informatics & analytics to support a precision diagnosis and personalized treatment – not a particular piece of equipment.

Similarly, under our Enterprise Monitoring as a Service (EMaaS) partnership with Jackson Health System, Philips retains ownership of the patient monitoring system and is responsible for all hardware, software, and networking upgrades across its network, while the customer pays a per-patient fee.

Hospitals produce 13 kg of waste per bed per day, of which 15-25% is hazardous waste. [8]

Healthcare facilities typically generate a lot of waste, including sharps, trace chemotherapy and pathological waste. Medical consumables are used in massive quantities, and they have a short use life. Consequently, they represent a major source of waste, adding to the financial pressure on health systems. This was exacerbated by the pandemic, which greatly increased the use of medical single-use devices.

At Philips, we aim to design-out waste and pollution and drive the responsible use of resources through our EcoDesign program, which is fully embedded in our innovation processes and drives improvements in four ‘Green Focal Areas’ – energy, substances, packaging, and circularity. For example, we are collaborating with our customers to optimize the lifetime of medical consumables materials and so minimize unnecessary disposal.

The supply chain (scope 3, purchased goods and services) is responsible for 71% of CO2 emissions within the EU. [9]

If we are to succeed in decarbonizing healthcare, we need to take an end-to-end view of the value chain. One way health systems can magnify their impact is to select suppliers who have committed to science-based targets for carbon reduction. In 2018, Philips became the first health technology company to have its CO2 emission targets assessed and approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Today, we are going even further, stepping up our supplier sustainability program so that at least 50% of our suppliers (based on spend) will have committed to science-based targets for carbon reduction by 2025. By supporting and incentivizing our suppliers to adopt and meet such targets, we aim to achieve a sevenfold greater impact than simply lowering CO₂ emissions from our own operations.

Leadership commitment to drive change and sustainability across the healthcare value chain – procurement, operations, innovation, service delivery, etc. – is essential if we are to address health systems’ environmental challenges and bring down costs. And it’s not a voluntary 'nice to have': with increasingly stringent environmental legislation on the way in many countries, it makes sense to get ahead of the curve. Setting ambitious targets and committing to report progress on a regular basis are crucial first steps. After that, it’s all about collaborating closely with others in the ecosystem – including care providers, practitioners, knowledge partners and suppliers – to implement change and deliver on commitments.

At Philips, we actively encourage all our value-chain partners to effect sustainable and circular ways of working within their organizations. At the same time, governments can support and stimulate a green approach by setting clear standards, rules and guidelines that apply to all companies, to create a level playing field and drive decarbonization across the board. Businesses need this clarity of purpose. At the same time, investors are demanding an ESG reporting system that enables them to make sound, reliable comparisons and investment decisions.