The Aga Khan Development Network’s (AKDN) approach to supply chain carbon foot printing for healthcare providers

Abstract

Very few examples of footprints exist for lower-middle-income countries and none for low-income countries. Where footprints do exist, they suggest that healthcare in LMICs is more carbon intensive per unit of expenditure than in high-income or upper-middle-income countries. At the same time, delivery of global commitments on Universal Health Coverage implies that healthcare provision in low and middle-income countries (LMICs) must grow more rapidly than anywhere else in the word.There has been little or no access to appropriate, comprehensive but affordable support to enable operations in LMICs to calculate full Scope 1,2 and 3 footprints. Without this it has been challenging for operations in LMICs to effectively target actions to reduce their emissions.With this in mind this paper sets out to demonstrate an approach to carbon foot printing healthcare in LMICs that is sufficiently robust to support targeted action, while using tools, resources and data that are freely accessible in all countries.This paper describes and discusses a 4-tiered ‘hybrid’ approach, developed using the international Greenhouse Gas Protocol. The approach was used successfully by staff to generate carbon footprints for healthcare organisations in 8 LMICs in South and Central Asia and East Africa. The organisations covered all fall within the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN); specifically, the Aga Khan Health Services (AKHS) and the Aga Khan Universities (AKU)The principles discussed in this paper, have been used to build a comprehensive carbon management tool in Microsoft Excel. The use of the approach and the tool has enabled AKDN healthcare providers to effectively, baseline, target and structure their carbon reduction activity.This work has had to pragmatically balance accuracy with deliverability in an LMIC context. While footprinting for Scope 1 and 2 has followed standard protocols, proxy data has been used to generate high level supply chain footprints, this has then been refined with data from suppliers.The tool and its accompanying guide are published and available, free to use, from AKDN to support other healthcare organisations in footprinting and reducing their own carbon emissions.