Most of the latest international scientific publications demonstrate that Healthcare systems represent, at the international level, between 4 and 5% of the global emissions balance of greenhouse gases. The non-governmental organization, the Shift Project, has even estimated the environmental cost of the French healthcare system at nearly 8% of the overall carbon national impact.
Hospitals play a major role and occupy a prominent place in this balance, and in particular university hospitals. As far as France is concerned, they have both a healthcare, teaching, and research mission. They are also often the largest employers and the leading economic players in their region. For all of these reasons, their commitment to the ecological transition and their conversion to green hospitals is absolutely essential to controlling and reducing the environmental footprint of the healthcare system. All public and private hospitals have long been committed to this transition, but often with changing priorities and therefore an impact who needs now to be re-examined. The carbon footprint is not everything and the environmental footprint represents, more generally, the ecological footprint in the broad sense.
Beyond the efforts already made by hospitals in terms of ecological transition, there is still much to do, but many solutions exist in this area.
- At the times at the level of each establishment, by the deployment of a structured low-carbon strategy. Taking action in terms of eco care, sobriety, relevance must be better rewarded.
- At the local level with partners of university hospitals to promote on scope 3 a proactive policy of sustainable purchasing and industrial partnership.
- And finally, as shown by the example of the commitment pact in the ecological transition of the 33 French university hospitals, a major challenge at the national and international level in the proper coordination of actions.
