A year and a half after Kaiser Permanente pledged to slice its carbon emissions in half by 2030, its supply chain department is making headway through operational changes and new contract clauses with suppliers.
In June 2022, the Oakland, Calif.-based system was among the first hospital organizations to sign HHS' climate change pledge, which is a commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. As of November 2023, about 80 systems and hospitals, plus about two dozen healthcare companies and suppliers, have joined the list.
At Kaiser Permanente, making progress requires a multipronged strategy. Steven Chyung, senior vice president and chief supply chain and procurement executive at Kaiser, told Becker's scope 3 emissions — or indirect emissions — account for a majority of Kaiser's carbon output. Thus, the supply team directed efforts to its supplier relationships.
"We started with this idea that environmental health is human health, and therefore as a healthcare organization, it's our responsibility to protect our environment," Mr. Chyung said. "That goes to the idea that we know environmental impacts, climate change, are going to end up fundamentally impacting human health and how we deliver healthcare. ... It matters how and what we purchase."
To incentivize the medical supply industry to cut greenhouse gas emissions, Kaiser is integrating decarbonization and greenhouse goals into its contracts. Depending on the manufacturer's capabilities, Kaiser is asking its suppliers to have greenhouse gas reduction targets, measure them, and, if able, share progress updates with the health system.
Mr. Chyung said his 2025 goal is to have 50% of Kaiser Permanente's spend be with supply companies that have the same decarbonization commitment.
The system also created an environmentally preferred purchasing program in 2016, which tests products against two criteria. One, suppliers have to remove 11 chemicals of concern, which could create health risks once in the waste stream, and two, once a product enters the waste stream, its impact is minimized, such as increasing its recyclability.
"Our clinicians really lead our product evaluation process," he said. "They're very much engaged in talking with our manufacturers and using [these criteria] as part of their decisions."
Purchases of products compliant with the environmentally preferred purchasing program have increased from 17% to 37%. The 2025 goal is 50%.
On the pharmacy supply chain side, Kaiser is slimming its less-than-truckload deliveries to its hospitals.
"What we did was say, 'Hey, look, don't ask us to deliver at 12 o'clock for every single med center. Can we start staggering those out until we can change our operations where your pharmacists can accept deliveries between 9 and 3 so I'm not sending out a lot more trucks that aren't as full?'" Mr. Chyung said.
Since implementing that initiative, the system has reduced pharmacy distribution transportation miles and carbon dioxide emissions by 17%.
"The things that are exciting for me are our folks are very energized by it, our clinicians are really energized by it. They really see the connection of what we're doing and how it connects to our mission of improving the health of our communities," Mr. Chyung said. "It's cool to be a leader in our space."