Summary / Key takeaways
Measurement is essential to understanding and reducing the environmental impacts of healthcare while supporting high-quality, sustainable care. While greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are an important metric, healthcare sustainability measurement should also consider the broader “triple bottom line” of people, planet, and cost. This includes measuring impacts on patient and staff experience, health outcomes, financial stewardship, resource use, waste, and carbon emissions.
GHG emissions are commonly measured as carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e), which standardize the warming impacts of different greenhouse gases into a single measure. In healthcare, much attention has focused on emissions from buildings and energy use, but studies show that supply chains, travel, procurement, and waste often represent the largest share of healthcare emissions. Measuring across multiple domains helps organizations identify priorities, establish baselines, and evaluate the impact of change initiatives such as virtual care, low-carbon clinical practices, and waste reduction strategies.
Without measurement, it is difficult to identify priorities, track progress, or understand the full impact of change initiatives such as virtual care or low-carbon clinical practice. Measurement helps identify high-impact opportunities, guide improvement efforts, and evaluate outcomes over time. It supports learning-focused approaches to sustainability, enabling teams to understand system-wide impacts and make informed decisions that improve care while reducing environmental harm.
Playbook: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation in Canadian Healthcare
Suggested Citation:
Nowlan J, Machane S, Miller FA. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation in Canadian Healthcare. Version 1.0. [Internet]. CASCADES; 2023 [cited DATE]. Available from: https://
Playbook: Virtual Care Carbon Accounting
Suggested Citation:
Simms N, Tariq M. Virtual Care Carbon Accounting. Version 2.0. [Internet]. CASCADES; 2023 [cited DATE]. Available from: https://cascadescanada.ca/.
