Overview: The healthcare sector has a profound impact on society’s well-being – and it also carries significant environmental and social responsibilities. Global studies estimate that healthcare accounts for roughly 4–5% of greenhouse gas emissions, not to mention other impacts from waste and resource use. BDO’s Sustainable Healthcare services help hospitals, clinics, and health systems to improve their sustainability performance while strengthening resilience against climate and environmental challenges. We work on developing sustainable and climate-resilient healthcare pathways, which means integrating sustainability into healthcare planning, facility design, and service delivery. This could involve ensuring hospitals have robust emergency preparedness for extreme weather events (floods, heatwaves), securing backup energy sources (like solar plus storage) for critical systems, and designing new facilities to be green buildings with efficient water and energy usage.

A key focus area is managing environmental issues in healthcare, such as biomedical and hazardous waste. We assist healthcare providers in implementing better waste segregation, handling, and disposal practices in line with global best practices and local regulations – minimizing infections and pollution from medical waste. This might include strategies to reduce single-use plastics, proper treatment of infectious waste, and exploring waste-to-energy options for non-recyclable waste. BDO also helps organizations track their environmental footprint (e.g. carbon emissions from anesthesia gases, waste generation per bed, water usage) and identify reduction opportunities without compromising patient care.

To support data-driven decision-making, we create tools and decision-support systems tailored for healthcare management. For example, we can develop dashboards that monitor sustainability KPIs for a hospital (energy per patient, waste per surgery, etc.) and model scenarios for improvements. These tools enable hospital administrators to visualize the trade-offs and benefits of different sustainability interventions (like shifting to renewable energy or adopting telehealth to reduce travel emissions), helping them make informed choices that align with both healthcare outcomes and sustainability goals. We also provide training for healthcare staff on sustainability principles – fostering a culture where clinicians and administrators alike are aware of and contribute to the organization’s ESG goals (e.g. proper waste segregation protocols, energy conservation behaviors). Ultimately, our sustainable healthcare solutions strive to improve public health outcomes and reduce costs through efficiency, while ensuring that healthcare delivery is environmentally responsible and resilient to future climate impacts. This aligns healthcare institutions with SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-being) as well as climate and environmental targets, demonstrating leadership in caring for both people and the planet.

Sustainable and climate-resilient health care pathways
Managing environmental issues such as biomedical waste
Creating tools for decision support for effective health care management