Environmentally sustainable health care: the opportunities and challenges of life cycle assessments.

Abstract

The health-care sector is a substantial contributor to climate change. To address this global issue, more than 120 countries committed to creating environmentally sustainable health systems at the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference held in November, 2023. Sustainability is thus becoming increasingly important for clinical practice. Life cycle assessments quantify the environmental sustainability of systems, products, and processes such as medical interventions. In this Personal View, we explain the fundamental concepts and principles of the methodology in the context of health care, intended for readers new to the field. The opportunities and challenges of applying this methodology to the delivery of health care are also discussed, as sustainability will become an important consideration in clinical decision making.