Life Cycle Assessments Enhance a Health System's Environmental Stewardship Initiative

Healthcare is one of the world's largest polluters. Hospitals face a paradox: while healing patients, they can be simultaneously harming the environment that sustains human health. Over the past century, health metrics have shown significant improvement with life expectancy rising and infant mortality falling, yet carbon emissions, water and energy use, ocean acidification, and deforestation have increased. Left unchecked, this level of consumption and resource use could lead to increased mortality, loss of biodiversity, water shortages, and nutritional disparities. Life cycle assessments have been suggested to examine the broader environmental impact and inform healthcare product decisions. This article describes what a life cycle assessment is, how it can be used for informed product decision-making, and provides recommendations for use in healthcare.