Understanding Life Cycle Assessments in Healthcare

A Practical Guide for Sustainability Decision-Making 

Healthcare organizations are under increasing pressure to reduce environmental impacts while maintaining the highest standards of patient care. Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) can help healthcare leaders make informed, data-driven decisions by evaluating the environmental impacts of products, processes, and services across their life cycles. This HPRC whitepaper provides an accessible introduction to LCA concepts, methodologies, and real-world healthcare applications, helping hospitals and healthcare systems better understand how to use LCAs as part of their sustainability strategies.  

Download HPRC’s Guide to LCAs
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Download this educational resource to learn how LCAs can support evidence-based decisions related to procurement, waste management, facility operations, circularity initiatives, and broader sustainability goals within healthcare systems.  

What You’ll Learn 

In this whitepaper, you’ll find: 

  • An introduction to Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) and their role in healthcare sustainability efforts.  
  • Explanations of common LCA approaches, including cradle-to-grave, cradle-to-gate, gate-to-gate, and comparative LCAs.  
  • Guidance on how hospitals and healthcare systems can apply LCAs to procurement, operations, waste management, and sustainability planning.  
  • Real-world healthcare case studies demonstrating how LCAs support evidence-based decision-making.  
  • A checklist of key criteria healthcare organizations should consider when reviewing or commissioning an LCA.  

Why LCAs Matter for Healthcare

LCAs provide a structured, science-based framework for evaluating environmental impacts and identifying opportunities for improvement. They can help healthcare organizations understand where emissions and resource consumption occur, assess trade-offs between different products or processes, establish sustainability benchmarks, and support strategic decision-making. Rather than providing definitive answers, LCAs serve as valuable decision-support tools that help organizations focus their efforts where they can achieve the greatest environmental benefit.  

Findings and Conclusions  

HPRC’s review of healthcare-focused LCA studies demonstrates that LCAs can play a critical role in helping healthcare organizations improve sustainability outcomes. While challenges remain around data availability, methodology consistency, and healthcare-specific standards, LCAs already offer meaningful insights that can inform procurement decisions, operational improvements, waste reduction efforts, and circular economy initiatives. By better understanding LCA principles and applying life cycle thinking consistently, healthcare organizations can make more informed decisions that reduce environmental impacts while continuing to deliver safe, high-quality patient care. 

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