A Scalable Approach for Estimating Employee Commuting Emissions at U.S. Healthcare Facilities.

OBJECTIVE: 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 CO2e/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.