The effects of global warming threaten all aspects of public health.
More frequent extreme weather events, including extreme heat, will worsen air quality, destroy agricultural resources and foster climate-sensitive diseases. According to the World Health Organization, climate change is expected to contribute to an additional 250,000 global deaths each year by 2030.
Health care providers and infrastructure will be stressed as a result of these consequences, and the health care system at large is responsible for an estimated 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions
The med center is working to be part of the solution. The med center’s facilities currently emit 117,000 MtCO2e (metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) annually — the same amount of energy it would take to power 14,738 homes for one year, per the Environmental Protection Agency (That equates to a city around the size of Scottsbluff, Nebraska.)
Alongside local sustainability consultants at Verdis Group, the med center has calculated its emissions and modeled strategies that can help it achieve net-zero emissions. The net zero pathway accounts for the med center’s direct emissions, called Scope 1 or Scope 2 emissions, which include things such as lighting, heating and cooling, refrigerants, anesthetics and the vehicle fleet.
The net zero pathway process allowed the med center to assess the energy usage at all buildings and break down that consumption by fuel commodity. The process revealed that 80% of direct emissions came from just 20 buildings.
Equipped with a better understanding of its energy usage and emissions, the med center will take the next step to investigate and implement strategies to reduce them. The model considered the costs, feasibility, timelines and financial return on investment of each identified strategy.
The med center is considering strategies that include efficiency projects, onsite renewable energy with battery storage, efficient building design and construction and more.
A process is ongoing to gather more information with representatives from facilities, planning and others from both UNMC and Nebraska Medicine to create a plan to achieve net zero emissions. The results of this project will be shared with the campus in the next year.