Green Hospital: Carbon neutral thanks to sustainable technology

In light of climate change, the healthcare industry is putting increasing emphasis on sustainability besides digitization and labor shortages. In the future, hospital facilities will be judged by their carbon footprint and their contribution to climate neutrality.

According to Michelle Dürksen, digital technologies hold great promise to cut emissions. As a Sustainability Consultant at Atos, she is an expert on this issue. In this MEDICA-tradefair.com interview, she talks about the role of digitization in decarbonization and explains how hospitals can go green successfully.

Ms. Dürksen, increased digitization contributes to high levels of carbon emissions. That’s why it sounds contradictory at first that more digital technologies should facilitate more sustainability. How can they help achieve net-zero emissions, meaning striking the balance between the amount of emissions emitted and emissions taken out of the atmosphere?

Michelle Dürksen: Digital technologies provide significant opportunities to help reduce emissions: Though they account for roughly 1.4 percent of global carbon emissions, they can actually help reduce the latter by 15% by 2030.

However, only about one-firth of companies around the world have a sustainable IT strategy, which means there is still a lot of room for improvement in this setting.

Digital solutions that can help an organization reach net zero include tools that can calculate the carbon footprint, business process improvements, and hardware optimization. Besides sustainability, many of these steps can also result in long-term cost savings.

What are some measures hospital facilities can take to achieve decarbonization?

Dürksen: As a first step, hospitals should calculate their carbon footprint to track all direct and indirect emissions. Ideally, this process includes many stakeholders, which enables the team to appreciate and understand the sustainability issue. The latter is imperative to prompt the necessary behavior and process adjustments.

It forms the basis for the second step, in which specific carbon emissions reduction targets are being defined. The next step entails the actual reduction of emissions. This might include a change to renewable energies, the implementation of energy efficient measures or waste reduction. The last step pertains to offsetting the currently unavoidable emissions. The offset is achieved through the purchase of carbon credits (carbon allowances or tradable certificates). These carbon credits are financing climate protection projects that reduce, remove, or avoid greenhouse gases.

What role does Atos play in this setting?

Dürksen: Atos launched its decarbonization efforts back in 2008. Since then, our company has confirmed its commitment to steadily reduce our emissions. Atos is also working on integrating decarbonization into its services and products. In 2020, Atos acquired EcoAct, an international sustainability consultancy. The unique combination of an international IT player and a sustainability consultancy enables Atos to support and help its clients and partners on their journey to net zero. This includes all aspects from the creation of a net zero strategy, the reduction of emissions by adopting digital solutions, all the way to the offset of unavoidable emissions.

How does a green hospital help improve the health and well-being of patients and staff?

Dürksen: The health sector plays an important role in climate action for society as a whole. Green hospitals can generate enormous energy savings that can have a long-term impact on the environment, air quality, and climate protection. The sector also sees a growing number of patients with a sustainability mindset. Many want their treatment to have a reduced ecological footprint. Most people think of issues such as waste, water consumption, or single-use (disposable) devices as opportunities for hospitals to make a difference in this setting.

A "Green Hospital" is also a smart facility. That means processes and procedures are efficient, ideally save time and reduce work for the hospital staff. This subsequently lowers stress and creates a more relaxed hospital environment.

You took part in the MHIF Tech Talk "Green Hospital" at MEDICA. How important are formats that bring people from different sectors of the industry together?

Dürksen: Unfortunately, outside of panel discussions, decarbonization is not yet an industry priority. Decarbonization of healthcare and hospitals is a new and complex issue that necessitates skills and expertise from many different areas.

That’s why these types of formats are very important to draw the industry’s attention to climate action and to facilitate a constructive dialogue between experts from a wide variety of sectors.