Environmental Lessons Learned and Applied (ELLA): a new framework for identifying, prioritising and implementing...

Area of Science:

• Environmental science
• Healthcare management
• Sustainable development

Background:

• Healthcare systems contribute significantly to carbon emissions.
• Decarbonisation efforts are crucial for environmental sustainability in clinical settings.
• Existing strategies often lack scalability and context-specificity.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a multidisciplinary framework for designing decarbonisation interventions in clinical care.
• To enable rapid deployment, scalability, and context-specific application of interventions.
• To integrate emissions reduction with broader healthcare priorities.

Main Methods:

• A multidisciplinary approach was employed.
• The framework was developed at a care pathway level.
• Identification of modifiable emissions hotspots was central to the design.

Main Results:

• A framework for designing rapidly deployable, scalable, and context-specific decarbonisation interventions has been established.
• The framework operates at the care pathway level.
• It effectively identifies modifiable emissions hotspots within clinical care.

Conclusions:

• The developed framework provides a structured approach for the National Health Service to implement effective decarbonisation strategies.
• This methodology supports the integration of environmental sustainability into routine clinical practice.
• The framework facilitates the achievement of both emissions reduction targets and other priority healthcare outcomes.