Green healthcare isn’t an option, it’s a necessity

“Healthcare is responsible for around 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions” said Robert Metzke. “We can only minimize the impact of healthcare on the environment if we all work together to put sustainability at the core of every component in the system, because green healthcare isn’t an option, it’s a necessity.”

Philips is already rising to the challenge. For example, the BlueSeal magnet technology in its newly-introduced Ingenia Ambition X 1.5T scanner allows hospitals to reduce operating costs and scanner down-time by eliminating the need to routinely purchase helium, a gas harvested from natural gas fossil-fuel extraction. Philips is no less innovative in its own operations. In the Netherlands, it is committed to buying all its electricity from renewable sources, already receiving substantial supplies from the new Bouwdokken Wind Farm on the country’s Oosterscheldekering sea defenses. In the US, all the company’s operations are already powered by wind energy.

That commitment to sustainability is ongoing. At the 2018 World Economic Forum in Davos, Philips CEO Frans van Houten cemented the company’s commitment to the Circular Economy, pledging that by 2020 it will take back and repurpose all the large medical systems that its customers are prepared to return to it. Other Philips ‘Healthy people, sustainable planet’ objectives for 2020 include 70% of turnover derived from ‘green’ solutions, 15% of turnover from circular economy solutions, 95% of revenue linked to UN Sustainable Development Goals, 90% of operational waste recycled, and 100% renewable electricity – ambitions it is determined to achieve.

For more information on Philips’ sustainability programs, click here.