10. Teaming up to reduce healthcare’s impact on the planet

Healthcare systems are part of a wider value chain – extending from extractive industries upstream to operations, logistics, use phase and end-of-use phase downstream – which has an impact on biodiversity through land use conversion, pollution, consumption and emissions.

With the widespread recognition of the effect environmental health has on human health, we see a continuing trend of healthcare systems actively adopting strategies to reduce their environmental footprint. For instance: switching to resource-efficient healthcare technology and smart digital solutions, or adopting science-based targets for emission reduction – the latter mandatory for all $1 billion-plus companies in California by 2025.

Yet broader nature risks may be overlooked as organizations see higher financial impacts from climate risks than from, say, deforestation or water withdrawal. The latter has direct consequences for population health. Thus, we expect to see an increasing trend towards the adoption of ‘natural capital accounting’ to support better decision-making around resource use management, and more companies committing to science-based targets for nature. At Philips, we have developed a program to improve the ecological value of our manufacturing footprint.

In February 2022, Morgan Stanley reported, “The growing water crisis will no doubt require virtually all industries to rethink their water use.” Philips is not a water-intense company. However, with a number of our manufacturing sites located in water-stressed regions, we have also initiated a program to reduce our total water consumption by 5% from its 2019 level.

On the planetary scale, an individual organization’s biodiversity footprint may not be huge. But unlike emissions, where individual reductions have a direct impact, ecosystem regeneration is more effective if spatially fragmented initiatives are integrated. Especially in this area, collaboration across the value chain is vital.