OR3mit – Progress Towards a Webtool to Estimate Operating Room Carbon Footprints

In the United States (U.S.) the healthcare sector accounts for approximately 8–10% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, compared with around 4% for the United Kingdom. Within the U.S. healthcare sector, operating rooms (ORs) account for at least 30% of emissions and are up to six times more energy intensive than hospitals as a whole. Despite this knowledge, there is often a disconnect between healthcare employees and the effects specific actions have on OR GHG emissions. This information is spread across scientific reports or journal articles, which are not always accessible. There is a need to condense and aggregate this information into an interactive tool. To address this need, we have developed OR3mit, which is a webtool for calculating OR GHG emissions. More importantly, it will let users test different inputs and see how actions could reduce or increase the OR carbon footprint. The number “3” in OR3mit highlights that Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions are considered in the calculations. Briefly, in the context of healthcare, Scope 1 includes emissions that are direct, and are often dominated by anesthetic gases. Scope 2 includes off-site emissions for energy use, that are usually dominated by heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems but also includes those related to lighting and patient monitoring equipment. Finally, Scope 3 emissions are for everything else including things like employee vehicular emissions to commute to work, from patient travel, cleaning supplies, water usage, and supply chain cradle to grave emissions for any equipment or products that are cycled through the OR. We hope that OR3mit will be a useful tool for anyone interested in understanding the impacts different actions have on OR GHG emissions. This education may serve as a catalyst for broader change that could lead to more sustainability initiatives within surgery environments.