How BC’s Health Care Teams are Decreasing the Environmental Costs of How They Deliver Care

Now, more than ever, our relationship with the environment matters. For years, the call to reduce, reuse and recycle has guided our efforts to shrink the environmental footprint we leave behind. However, as the impacts of climate change grow more evident each year, we know there is more work to be done.

Health care professionals have been taking action, recognizing that clinical care within the health system is a large consumer of energy and resources, and a major producer of emissions and waste. The impacts are substantial, with upwards of 5% of greenhouse gas emissions coming from health systems – almost on par with the environmental impact of the aviation industry.^*

The work to address health care’s impacts on climate change has already begun. In fact, health care professionals are well positioned to decrease the environmental costs of how we deliver care by changing individual practice, influencing health system decision-making, and setting clinical standards that support low-carbon, high-quality care.

Eighteen Teams, Two Areas of Focus, One Mission – and 2,000 kg of Carbon Savings

Health Quality BC’s Low-Carbon, High-Quality Care (LCHQ) Collaborative worked with 18 teams to improve health care quality while decreasing the environmental costs of how they delivered care. They spread known practices, fostered innovation, and shared knowledge about co-benefits of low-carbon practices that both improve the quality of care and reduce carbon emissions from clinical practices.

The LCHQ Collaborative featured two streams, selected as areas where leading practices are already starting to drive change across the health system: the perioperative setting and climate-conscious inhaler practices. Nine teams focused on implementing low-carbon inhaler practices related to the management of asthma and COPD (inpatient or outpatient settings): one metered-dose inhaler, depending on the type, can have the same carbon footprint as driving up to 170km in a gas car.^*

Nine other teams focused on introducing sustainable perioperative practices: an operating surgical suite has an estimated impact of over 3,200,000kg CO₂e, equivalent to powering over 718 Canadian homes annually.^*

We wanted to know what was possible in this newly explored area of low-carbon, high-quality care – and we were blown away at what we found out.

Of the teams who were able to collect and analyze data from January 2024 to November 2024, the practice changes they focused on are saving the health system over 2,000 kg of CO₂e each month – the equivalent of driving over 10,000 km! Not only that, we exceeded our initial goal of reducing carbon emissions from clinical practices of the participating teams by 10% and reached an estimated reduction of CO2e by 57%.

So, what does success look like?

How Reusable Surgical Gowns Helped Peace Arch Hospital Successfully Reduce Their Environmental Impact

The team at Peace Arch Hospital in White Rock recognized that while the operating room is a sterile environment, it doesn’t mean you need to purchase single-use items to keep it that way. They decided to transition to reusable surgical gowns from the disposable option – and were able to substantially reduce the amount of waste generated from disposable gowns, resulting in a savings of almost three tonnes of waste a year, or the weight of 15 hospital beds!

However, the switch to reusable gowns was not without challenges. One size doesn’t fit all, so feedback from staff was used to fine-tune gown quality, sizing and comfort – working closely with their supplier, K-Bro, to get the details right. Disposable gowns (pictured) were collected from custom operating room packs and then dispersed to other departments for use, including Maternity, Medical Device Reprocessing and Post-Anaesthesia Care, so that nothing went to waste. 

The environmental benefits of this change are substantial. While reusable gowns may cost a few cents more per use, each one delivers nearly 10 times the environmental value when assessed through Fraser Health’s new CLIMB system – a framework for quantifying environmental benefits and translating them into dollar-equivalent value. And this initiative is just the beginning! Reusable surgical gowns are the first of many perioperative textiles under review, with items like drapes and wraps set to follow. Once these are added to the program, the overall cost of surgical linens is expected to be lower for reusables than for disposables, delivering both environmental and financial gains.

The team (pictured) has worked closely with Health Quality BC to monitor surgical site infection rates throughout the transition. In the months since the change, no variation has been observed. Monitoring will continue as part of routine quality assurance, but the results so far suggest reusable gowns are supporting safe, high-quality surgical care. The team is now working with the Fraser Health Sustainability & Preparedness Team and Surgical Network to spread and scale the change across all Fraser Health operating rooms.

Learn More

Are you interested in learning more about how you can include low-carbon practices that both improve the quality of care and reduce carbon emissions? Contact us at lowcarbon@healthqualitybc.ca.

You can also read our Low-Carbon High-Quality Care Collaborative Evaluation Report to learn more about how we worked to tackle reductions in carbon emissions in BC.