The health sector and climate change: emissions management challenges

July 30, 2025 / WayCarbon

Santa Casa BH, the largest hospital in Brazil in terms of number of SUS (public health system) admissions, advances in ESG initiatives and has just signed a partnership for the management of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions with WayCarbon. The institution became the first 100% SUS hospital in Brazil to be a signatory to the UN Global Compact and chose WayCarbon to improve the management of GHG emissions and other sustainability indicators.

The institution, with about 1,200 beds for patients from more than 90% of the municipalities in Minas Gerais State, created an ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) commission a year ago with the objective of carrying out a diagnosis, conducting the materiality exercise and developing a work plan to advance initiatives in the sustainability agenda, including the management and monitoring of ESG indicators and the publication of an Annual Sustainability Report based on GRI Standards. With the evolution of the topic, Santa Casa BH made a commitment to integrate the ESG and climate agendas into its organizational strategy and identified the challenge of carrying out its first emissions inventory, as well as managing and monitoring ESG indicators. To this end, the entity announces the adoption of the WayCarbon Ecosystem platform, which carries out, in an integrated and systemic way, the management of climate and ESG indicators of institutions of different sizes, sectors and levels of maturity.

“Carrying out the GHG emissions inventory will allow the identification of Santa Casa BH’s main sources of emissions and will work as a basis for the organization to work on an effective decarbonization strategy,” explains Lauro Marins, Head of Digital Solutions and Consulting at WayCarbon. “The use of technology will facilitate data collection and will also bring visibility to emissions and ESG indicators, allowing the entity to continuously report its evolution on material topics to the Global Compact,” adds the executive.

The UN Global Compact is an initiative that supports companies to work with a set of 17 interconnected, internationally defined goals that aim to promote a fairer, more sustainable and prosperous world by 2030. “For a philanthropic hospital, the commitment to people’s health and well-being gains even more relevance, as taking care of the environment is also a way to expand access to health and protect the most vulnerable populations”, says Guilherme Kennedy Rodrigues de Assis, Coordinator of Environment and Sustainability at Santa Casa BH.

The health sector and climate change

The high energy consumption of hospitals, the use of disposable materials and medicines, and the transportation of patients are some of the direct factors that place the health sector as responsible for 4.4% of global CO₂ emissions, data recorded in a survey by Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) – an international NGO that works for the sector to become ecologically sustainable. The sector is also among the most vulnerable to climate change, being directly impacted by phenomena such as extreme heat waves, which increase the demand for medical care and put even more pressure on health systems.

“There is still no specific guideline for the health sector in Brazil, so projects like the one we developed with Santa Casa BH are fundamental to create a reference for the entire segment, which can evolve based on the work already developed by the institution from Minas Gerais”, explains Lauro Marins.

The role of third sector organizations

In addition to belonging to the health sector, Santa Casa BH is also an non-governmental organization (NGO). Third sector organizations play an increasingly relevant role in the climate agenda, acting in a complementary way to governments and the private sector, in initiatives such as financing, advocacy, mobilization of civil society, and even project execution.

“Integrating sustainable practices into hospital management is a necessary measure to ensure resilience, efficiency and truly comprehensive care. With WayCarbon, we seek to advance in the structuring of a climate resilience plan, aligned with our values and the best practices in the sector, actively contributing to global commitments to tackle the climate crisis”, concludes the Environment and Sustainability coordinator at Santa Casa BH.