​Clinical Trials: Carbon footprint assessment guidance
Guidance Document

Many are now making the link that the climate change crisis also represents a health crisis. There is a clear need for methodology to measure the carbon footprint of trials reliably and consistently. This is vital to ensure that the footprint of trials, wherever and however they are initiated and run, can be measured and reported on a consistent and credible basis and to enable carbon reduction efforts. Generating a well-founded footprint means that reduction efforts can be directed to those trial activities associated with the greatest contribution to the overall footprint.

The “Clinical Trials: Environmental assessment guidance” document builds on the method for estimating the environmental footprint of a clinical trial. It gives guidance and useful information for focussing assessment on a trial’s carbon footprint. It outlines how to assess the carbon footprint of a clinical trial which has either been completed, is partially complete or is under design and planning. Both the Method and Guidance are in alignment with the International Standard for Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) (ISO14044) and the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard.

The guidance has been developed as part of a framework of method, guidance and tools that, taken together, we hope will form an important reference for clinical trials and health system stakeholders wanting to both understand and reduce the environmental impact of clinical research.