Work in Health Care? These 4 Strategies Can Help You Cut Costs and Carbon Content.
By Tensie Whelan and Chisara Ehiemere
When you think of the biggest polluters of greenhouse gas emissions, health care may not be top of mind. But the health care system is responsible for 8.5 percent of GHGs in the U.S. and about 5 percent globally.
At the same time, health care systems are increasingly affected by the climate change impacts of those outsized emissions. This ranges from facilities being hit with extreme weather and volatile energy prices to patients experiencing heat-related ailments or new illnesses brought on by changing disease vectors from a warming climate. Health systems are also chronically underfunded, and the current administration’s reduction of health care funding will exacerbate the problem.
Fortunately, there are opportunities for health care players of all sizes and stages to reduce their costs through decarbonization – and also contribute to reducing the negative societal and health impacts of emissions.
Read the full Trellis article.
____
Tensie Whelan is a Clinical Professor of Business and Society and Director of the Center for Sustainable Business.