Boston hospitals maintain progress in reducing GHG emissions

Metropolitan Boston health care energy and greenhouse gas profile analyzed 40,000 records of energy consumption and GHG emissions for 13 Boston-area hospitals. Over 11 years, encompassing 2011-2022, these hospitals reduced their emissions by 22%, avoiding almost 700,000 metric tons of emissions, or the equivalent of the electricity use of 145,000 homes. 

Health Care Without Harm and the Green Ribbon Commission last analyzed data through 2019 (in a report released in 2021). The new report details progress made since the 2021 report, and serves as a call to action for continued innovation and commitment to sustainability.

“These numbers represent maintaining progress in one of the most difficult to decarbonize sectors in the region, at a time when the world really turned upside down,” said Winslow Dresser, Health Care Without Harm’s associate director of climate solutions.

The report outlines new and continued efforts of hospitals around energy conservation, on-site low-carbon energy production, contracts with low-carbon energy producers, and private renewable energy contracts. Examples include:

• In 2022, Boston Medical Center (BMC) opened the nation’s first net-zero behavioral health center in Brockton, Massachusetts. BMC bought a former nursing home and added geothermal, energy efficient windows, and a five-inch insulated façade.
• Mass General Brigham now operates 3,117 kW of photovoltaic in the greater Boston area. In addition, in 2024, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Waltham started operating a new, behind-the-meter 576 kW system producing 666,864 kWh annually, and Brigham and Women's Faulkner Hospital will soon start the construction of a 1,200 kW system producing 1,407,839 kWh annually.
• In 2024, Mass General Brigham collaborated on two virtual power purchase agreements to enable new renewable energy facilities and purchase an estimated 1.3 million megawatt-hours of renewable electricity annually by 2026.

In Boston, hospitals and other large, non-residential properties are subject to limits on GHG intensity starting in 2025 and are required to be net zero by 2050. In Cambridge, Massachusetts, these buildings must achieve net zero by 2035.

The report offers projections for how hospitals may reach a 50% reduction in GHGs by 2030; this 50% represents a more ambitious target than the 38% target in the 2021 report. The new report posits that hospitals could reach 50% reductions by eliminating GHGs emissions from electricity, and decreasing GHG emissions from all other energy types by 2.25% annually. For hospitals that have introduced gas-fired combined heat and power systems (CHPs), reducing natural gas emissions by 2.25% could present a challenge. However, CHPs reduce steam energy consumption, which accounted for more than 38% of site energy consumption in 2022. 

“While it is feasible to achieve these reductions, they will require a significant acceleration in decarbonization actions, and we are rapidly running out of time,” Dresser shared. “We need all hands on deck, and continued innovation and commitment to sustainability, to achieve these ambitious targets. 
Dresser continued, “These health care organizations deserve praise for the significant emissions reductions made during recent years, but significant work remains if they are to hit 2030 targets.”

Looking ahead, MassHealth has taken a significant step in expanding understanding about climate progress in health care by mandating that all 55+ acute care hospitals in Massachusetts using Medicaid funds begin tracking and reporting their GHG emissions starting in 2025. Massachusetts will be the first state to create this requirement, which could serve as a model to the nation in tackling these challenges.

“The ambitious climate goals Boston hospitals have committed to are achievable and require health care sector leadership,” said Tim Cronin, Health Care Without Harm’s associate director of policy and advocacy. “But action will also require partnership and support from state and city policymakers, lawmakers, utilities, and energy suppliers. Realizing a health sector that is resilient, clean, and equitable remains a collective goal we all share.”