Reducing Scope 1 & Scope 2 Emissions from Inhaled Anesthetics & OR Energy Consumption

By Hannah Lambalot | Categories: | Comments Off on Reducing Scope 1 & Scope 2 Emissions from Inhaled Anesthetics & OR Energy Consumption

UCSF made a pledge to be carbon neutral by 2025, and this commitment to sustainability drives this health system to innovate and reduce its carbon footprint across different scopes of work. This program specifically focused on two aspects: scope 1 inhaled anesthetics emission reduction via a Clinical Decision Support (CDS) tool and scope 2 emissions from operation room (OR) energy consumption reduction via HVAC setback and an equipment shutdown checklist. These two projects work in tandem to make the clinical operations at UCSF Medical Centers more efficient and sustainable, while generating tools that can be widely disseminated to other hospitals for decarbonization.

Sustainability has been a focus at UCSF Health and the broader UC system, where we have an ambitious carbon neutrality goal. We couldn’t achieve what we accomplished today without the support and funds from leadership. Dr. Gandhi started working on sustainability as an anesthesiologist on their own time as a passion and was appointed to be the inaugural medical director of sustainability to have dedicated time for these clinical mitigation efforts. UCSF Health also has a robust Office of Sustainability where two sustainability analysts help facilitate a variety of mitigation efforts. 

The Sustainability Committee (UASC), led by the chief operating officer, instills a sustainability focus into the four biggest areas of operation. The four pillars, including Purchasing, Perioperative, Energy, and Waste, also collaborate on different projects where there is overlap, which enables us to have a good working relationship with the facility management team. In addition, UC established a system-wide sustainability workgroup and anesthesia workgroup where we can exchange ideas, experiences, and best practices. This program also engages the OR leadership, surgeons, trainees, and facility management in the process and education surrounding this work. 

For the Scope 1 emissions work, UCSF has developed a self-guided toolkit that educates providers on the impact of inhaled anesthetics and advises them on more sustainable anesthesia practices and how to implement a similar CDS tool to reduce inhaled anesthetics emissions. Any hospital that utilizes EPIC as its electronic health record system will be able to implement this CDS tool based on the blueprint. Regarding Scope 2 Operation Room (OR) energy reduction, the team has completed the initial data collection on both upstream (electrical and mechanical) energy consumption, as well as the individual equipment energy monitoring, and is currently in the process of OR HVAC setback validation.