Health Care Sustainability and Public Health

The Yale Program on Health Care Environmental Sustainability (Y-PHES) within the Center on Climate Change and Health is dedicated to improving the environmental performance of health care itself through basic and implementation research, public policy and advocacy, and education. We are a transdisciplinary body of the health professional Yale Schools of Public Health, Medicine and Nursing, in partnership with the Yale Schools of the Environment, and Management, and with the Yale-New Haven Health System.

• The effects of climate change are being felt today, and future projections represent an unacceptably high and potentially catastrophic risk to human health.
• Tackling climate change could be the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century.
• The health community has a vital part to play in accelerating progress to address climate change.
• The US health sector accounts for 4.6% of global carbon dioxide emissions, a value that is continuously increasing across most major economies.
• Though the number of countries offering climate services to the health sector has increased from 55 in 2018 to 70 in 2019, this progress is inadequate.
• Globally, children are among the most affected by climate change. Children born today experience a world that is “more than four degrees warmer than pre-industrial average,” increasing the likelihood of child malnutrition (due to lower crop yields) and susceptibility to severe effects from illnesses such as diarrheal disease and dengue fever.

The US health care sector is a leading emitter of greenhouse gas and non-greenhouse gas pollution.

1. If the US health sector were a nation itself it would rank 13th in the world for greenhouse gas emissions in 2013. It produces nearly 10% of national greenhouse gases.
2. US health sector non-greenhouse gas emissions contribute to acid rain (12% of the national total), photochemical smog (10%), and criteria air pollutants (9%).
3. Public health damages from exposure to non-greenhouse emissions alone were estimated at 405,000 disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) annually. Greenhouse gas emission may contribute to an additional 209,000 DALYs per year.

Pollution: A Global Crisis

The health care sector itself is a major driver of environmental pollutants that adversely affect human health. US health care is a $3.5 trillion industry, one-third of which has been deemed wasteful or of no added value. Each year, the US health sector produces nearly 10% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to 614 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. These emissions have increased by more than 30% within the last decade. Though currently unaccounted for, the disease burden from healthcare greenhouse gas and non-greenhouse gas pollution is as commensurate in magnitude as medical errors, as first reported by the Institute of Medicine in To Err is Human.

Building quality into health systems includes avoiding injuries to patients through care that is intended to help them, improve efficiency, and avoid waste. Reducing health care pollution entails addressing excessive or inappropriate resource consumption and minimizing the environmental footprint of health care activities. Striving towards these measures will translate into higher value care and improved population health.

Our Mission

Our mission is to develop and support efforts that measure and mitigate pollution, uniquely focusing on health care delivery. This requires interdisciplinary collaboration between health professionals, bioinformatic scientists, sustainability scientists and engineers, health economists, public policy and legal experts, business management and health care administrators, entrepreneurs, and innovators.

Our Vision

Aligning with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, our vision is to transform the health sector into a sustainable, circular economy that is safe, effective, and equitable for patients and communities today and in the future. We aim to:

1. Conduct scientific research that focuses on applying sustainability science to health care practices.
2. Advocate for health and environmental policies that reduce excessive waste and pollution, including those that require disproportionate risk assessment of individual patients (e.g. infection control) at the expense of public health.
3. Educate health professionals and students about how resource conservation and protection of public health is essential to the duty to do no harm.

Education

Spring 2020

EPH 556/F&ES 956b: Health care Environmental Sustainability Practicum
Course description available here
For more information about year-round research and educational opportunities, please contact:

• Dr. Jodi Sherman, Director
• Melia Bernal, Program Coordinator