Climate Impact Checkup (CIC) tool estimates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from health car institutions using data primarily from energy consumption, transport, waste management, expenditures, and other activities relevant to the sector’s climate impact. It calculates the carbon footprint based on national emission factors, when available and applicable. Health care systems and facilities are able to benchmark their footprint against similar facilities in their country, region, and globally.

The calculator is expected to be used by health care facilities globally to set a baseline, identify priorities, develop plans, and promote action for carbon reduction in operations and some procurement procedures.

In addition to providing carbon footprint data and establishing a mitigation starting point, CIC tool also gives you access to a peer network, where members can share experiences and advice through discussion forums and a global community of practice.

The calculator is aligned with the GHG Protocol, has health care specific emissions such as those produced from using anesthetic gases and inhalers, and contains emission factors per country when available and applicable, to allow for accurate health facilities’ footprint estimation in most countries. For instance, in electricity, CIC uses national and subnational values of more than 200 nations and territories. CIC is available online and can be downloaded as a spreadsheet. It is accompanied by a guide to support users and direct them to resources to reduce their footprint.

Members of the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals (GGHH) have access to both online and downloadable spreadsheet versions of the Climate Impact Checkup tool.

ATACH community of practice can access the downloadable spreadsheet, while health care and sustainability professionals who enroll in the online course receive both the downloadable spreadsheet and a limited online tool version for six months after registration.

Health ministries that are participating in ATACH can also join Health Care Without Harm’s Global Green and Healthy Hospitals Network. Current members include Ministries of Health from Bhutan, Colombia, Ethiopia, Maldives, Peru, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as several sub-national health authorities.

Requests and questions can be referred to checkup@hcwh.org.

The sources covered in CIC were selected either because of their relevance to global emissions and/or because they were health care sector-specific (such as fugitive emissions from medicinal gases) as well as for the ability to get representative and accurate data. The feedback Health Care Without Harm receives from its users is essential, and the tool is consistently improved and updated. Below are the sources emissions by Scope.

All calculations for Scopes 1, 2, and 3 are based on activity data. Scope 3 extra supply chain calculations are spend-based data and use a different methodology, with emission factors for 43 countries (for the remaining countries, it uses a Rest of the World estimation).

Future developments and improvements

More emissions sources will be added along with more local/specific data. Some sources currently being analyzed for future inclusion are wastewater treatment and electromobility. Users' feedback from all regions provide important information about the priorities and needs at the facility and system levels.

CIC online uses Health Care Without Harm’s Hippocrates platform. This platform includes live calculations, graphics, and benchmarking by year. Other resources include:

• PDF report of annual emissions with graphics and tables
• Offline (excel) version of the tool for annual calculations
• Discussion forum and community of practice
• Workshops to learn how to use the tool and increase the quality of inventories
• Guidelines to use the tool, set goals and create action plans

Health Care Without Harm is also developing an online course on the CIC tool and the development of carbon management plans. It will be available soon in English and Spanish.

Reports, graphics, and benchmarking

All online version users can generate graphics to visual data per year and compare one metric (CO2eq/patient/year) with other institutions in the same country, or globally of the same level of complexity and more. Users can also see their reports in a map depicting the geographies of where other hospitals are reporting. All reports can be downloadable in PDF and CSV formats.

All data is treated with absolute confidentiality. For example, the map only shows the location of the report by state, (not city), level of complexity and number of reports shared by that institution and does not show the name of the institution.

Partial visualization of Checkup’s reports section in Hippocrates platform

The Climate Impact Checkup and Health Care Emissions Impact Calculator are tools Health Care Without Harm developed, both designed to assist health care organizations in measuring their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Despite sharing this common goal, they differ in their primary target audiences. The Climate Impact Checkup caters to a global audience, while the Health Care Emissions Impact Calculator specifically targets U.S. health systems.

We present below a detailed summary of the differences and similarities between them:

Health Care Without Harm works through regional offices in Asia, Europe, and the United States; a regional team in Latin America; and country-level partnerships with national organizations in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Nepal, and South Africa. Our mission is to transform health care worldwide so that it reduces its environmental footprint, becomes a community anchor for sustainability and a leader in the global movement for environmental health and justice.

We have a comprehensive set of partnerships with health organizations, health professionals, international organizations, and government ministries, comprising a global network of more than 1,700 members who represent the interests of more than 70,000 hospitals and health centers in 82 countries worldwide (May 2023 data).

To contact Health Care Without Harm about Climate Impact Checkup, please email: checkup@hcwh.org