Pressures grow on the health care industry to reduce its climate pollution

‘If I were a hospital, I’d be reading the tea leaves’: Pressures grow on the health care industry to reduce its climate pollution Some hospitals have begun to tout their efforts to combat climate change, with scattershot examples of progress. Yet hospitals have long been laggards in even tracking and reporting their emissions and waste. Karen Pennar STAT

...while hospitals might seem to be the unwitting victims of climate disasters, the U.S. health care system — and hospitals in particular — shoulder a good deal of the blame. The health care sector accounts for about 8.5% of all the greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S., and about 4.5% of worldwide emissions. These emissions are generated mostly from running energy-draining facilities 24/7, and from the vast array of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, food, and other goods and services produced, purchased, and sometimes wasted, in the course of providing care. 

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