Brown, Lawrence, Buettner, Petra, and Canyon, Deon V. (2012) The energy burden and environmental impact of health services. American Journal of Public Health, 102 (12). e76. pp. 1-8.

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Abstract

Objectives: We reviewed the English-language literature on the energy burden and environmental impact of health services.

Methods: We searched all years of the PubMed, CINAHL, and ScienceDirect databases for publications reporting energy consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, or the environmental impact of health-related activities. We extracted and tabulated data to enable cross-comparisons among different activities and services; where possible, we calculated per patient or per event emissions.

Results: We identified 38 relevant publications. Per patient or per event, health-related energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are quite modest; in the aggregate, however, they are considerable. In England and the United States, health-related emissions account for 3% and 8% of total national emissions, respectively.

Conclusions: Although reducing health-related energy consumption and emissions alone will not resolve all of the problems of energy scarcity and climate change, it could make a meaningful contribution.

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