Measuring carbon footprint for a primary healthcare clinic - a pathway for a more sustainable healthcare.

In Sweden, healthcare accounts for roughly 20% of the public sector´s emissions of greenhouse gases and is a significant factor behind increasing climate change.

Despite that, there is limited knowledge of which areas/processes/flows that give rise to the health care´s climate footprint.

Most emissions in the healthcare sector come from indirect emissions, mainly from procurement of goods and services and staff and patient travel, where primary care is a large contributor.

In Region Skåne, half of all care visits take place in primary care, which is the largest user of consumables in relation to care production. This makes it a particularly suitable arena for climate interventions. This preparatory project aims to map and calculate the climate impact of primary care in Scania.

The project will use a climate calculation tool based on the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol) developed for national level to map areas suitable for measurement and follow-up within primary care.

The process is intended as a first step to test and explore the tool to map some selected care processes at 2–3 pilot care centers to be able to scale up the operation at a later stage and implement it widely in primary care in Skåne.

Measures to reduce the climate impact of healthcare not only benefit the environment and climate, but also contribute to better health and to reduce "low-value care". The project is a collaboration between Primary Care Skåne, Lund University and Innovation Skåne.