Greening The Health Care Safety Net

Boston Medical Center's experience offers lessons for other health care systems looking to reduce their carbon footprint, as well as for state and federal policymakers who want to support their efforts.

There is a business case for carbon reduction in many healthcare sectors, including social care organisations. Innovative partnerships and funding arrangements can help ensure a return on investment.

Social security system like BMC has little gap in medical institutions. In a 2019 survey this year, nearly 300 members of a major U.S. hospital network trade group said limited resources prevented them from investing in green initiatives.

When planning for environmental initiatives, Bigo focused on a return on investment of at least eight years, and this goal was achieved in the renovation of the premises. The company was looking for ways to recoup some of the initial costs of building the BMC power plant, with estimated savings of $15 million and $1.5 million per year. At the suggestion of state officials, BMC partnered with the City of Boston to apply for and win a $3.5 million sustainability grant from the state. In return, the BMC agreed to provide the plant with backup power for the city's communications system for emergency medical, police and fire departments. In addition, BMC received a $1.5 million incentive payment from its electricity supplier to reduce energy costs, reducing BMC's costs by $10 million.

In addition to grants from government agencies that support sustainability and clean energy, the BMC benefits from incentives such as renewable energy credits. It has offered low-rate financing through green bonds and, more recently, sustainable bonds. BMC's environmental initiatives have attracted at least $11 million in private donations, Bizio said.

Methods and resources for financing "green" initiatives in health care

Give everyone, from the youngest, a chance to be part of the solution.

Overall, BMC's carbon footprint has been impressive, but growing. The key was to educate employees about the benefits of moving to local standards and encourage them to take advantage of the opportunity. "I tell people, 'Like gold panning. I want them to go out every day and find ideas that will make the organization more efficient,'" Biggio says.

When the head of BMC's anesthesiology department learned that a particular anesthetic, sevoflurane, was highly contaminated, he began lobbying the organization to reduce its use. In recent years, Providence, Virginia, Mason and other health care systems have greatly reduced or eliminated the use of desflurane, another polluting anesthetic gas.

Since 2011, BMC has reduced Scope 1 (direct emissions from healthcare owned or controlled sources) and Scope 2 (indirect emissions from purchased energy) emissions by 91 percent. To achieve the goal of carbon neutrality by 2030 this year, the system must consider Scope 3 emissions: the production of goods and services purchased by the health system. At the national level, greenhouse gas emissions from healthcare have 3 opportunities.

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