# Ways to Build a Greener Healthcare System: Comment on "A Review of the Applicability of Current Green Practices in Healthcare Facilities"

## TL;DR

This commentary suggests ways to make healthcare systems more environmentally friendly using methods like life cycle assessment and improving energy efficiency.

## Contribution

The paper introduces life cycle assessment as a tool for evaluating environmental impacts in healthcare and highlights regional energy differences.

## Key findings

- Life cycle assessment can help compare environmental impacts of clinical products and services.
- Improving building energy efficiency and reducing overdiagnosis are key green practices in healthcare.
- Regional energy system differences must be considered when comparing healthcare carbon footprints.

## Abstract

Green practices have become the responsibility of healthcare system in the current warming planet. The article by Soares and colleagues reviews the literature on circular economy implementation in the European Union (EU) and its application in healthcare system. In this commentary, we complement the findings by discussing ways to build a greener healthcare system and introducing life cycle assessment (LCA), a method to quantify the environmental impacts of products and services in healthcare. LCA is useful to compare the environmental impacts of different clinical products and pathways. Within the healthcare system, avoiding overdiagnosis and overprescribing, improving building energy efficiency, and fleet electrification are important green practices. In addition, we cannot ignore the differences in regional energy system when comparing the carbon footprint of different healthcare systems.