Sustainability in Healthcare: A Call to Action for Surgeons and Healthcare Leaders

In the past 20 years, we have faced a pandemic, an economic recession, and international warfare but climate change remains one of the greatest threats to health and humanity. Although it does not receive the scrutiny of other industries, the global healthcare industry accounts for more carbon emissions than global aviation, with the United States contributing 27% of healthcare emissions despite only having 4% of the world’s population. Put another way, if the US healthcare sector alone were a country, it would create more emissions than the entire United Kingdom [1]. It logically follows that the healthcare industry is an excellent target for our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.