A Scalable Approach for Estimating Employee Commuting Emissions at U.S. Healthcare Facilities
Melanie Marino, Matthew J. EckelmanObjective:
This study aims to develop a standardized method to estimate employee commuting greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for healthcare facilities across the U.S. Current methods can be laborious, time-consuming, and difficult to scale – relying heavily on survey participation or manual data extraction.
Methods:
Quantitative data analysis was used to spatially join healthcare facility locations with EPA Smart Location Calculator data and estimate per-worker commuting GHG emissions for U.S. healthcare facilities.
Results:
Analyzing approximately 63,000 healthcare facilities in the U.S, results show commuting emissions per worker concentrated around the national average of 1,949 kg CO 2 e/year, about 12% of the current U.S. per‑capita average for all GHG emissions.
Conclusions:
This research provides healthcare organizations with a tool for estimating baseline commuting emissions, facilitating more effective sustainability initiatives and compliance with evolving climate pledges in the sector.