OR sustainability: A holistic system understanding
How do surgical gloves affect sustainability and the global environment?
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For healthcare companies to improve their environmental impact, one step would be understanding how single-use products such as surgical gloves, influence that environmental impact.
This episode includes: How can companies square their sustainability targets with single-use surgical products, such as surgical gloves? What does sustainability mean? Different material and manufacturing choices and how their impact is measured have a real effect on the planet.
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Speaking the same language
Whether it’s a lifecycle assessment (LCA) or disclosure standards, sustainability is only understandable and achievable if everyone within the value chain aligns on measuring and sharing data and metrics in the same way.
Holistic system understanding
Rather than dealing with isolated data points, it’s critical to understand an entire system. A holistic approach to improvement will consider production methods, renewability and recyclability of materials, the energy expended during production, the carbon footprint of transport, packaging, and product end of life.
There’s a long sustainability journey ahead to accurately measure and understand the holistic environmental impact of healthcare delivery.
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Resources:
- Shared value: https://www.sharedvalue.org/about/what-is-shared-value/
- Carbon Disclosure Project: https://www.cdp.net/en
- EcoVadis: https://ecovadis.com/
- United Nations Sustainable Development: https://sdgs.un.org/
- Life Cycle Assessment: https://sphera.com/glossary/what-is-a-life-cycle-assessment-lca/
- The Greenhouse Gas Protocol (and scopes 1,2,3): https://ghgprotocol.org/
- Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD): https://www.carbontrust.com/news-and-insights/insights/corporate-sustainability-reporting-directive-csrd-explained
- Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards: https://www.globalreporting.org/
- Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and standard for Net Zero: https://sciencebasedtargets.org/
Impacts on hospital emissions:
- Baxter NB, Yoon AP, Chung KC. Variability in the Use of Disposable Surgical Supplies: A Surgeon Survey and Life Cycle Analysis. J Hand Surg Am. 2021 Dec;46(12):1071-1078. https://www.jhandsurg.org/action/showPdf?pii=S0363-5023%2821%2900364-6
- Drew J, Christie SD, Tyedmers P, Smith-Forrester J, Rainham D. Operating in a Climate Crisis: A State-of-the-Science Review of Life Cycle Assessment within Surgical and Anesthetic Care. Environ Health Perspect. 2021 Jul;129(7):76001. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8274692/pdf/ehp8666.pdf
