July 2026 | Every visit a trial requires is also a journey with a carbon cost. Redesigning where and how those journeys happen is one of the most direct levers a trial has for decarbonising.
Resource Category Archives
Open Letter to Clinical Trial Community published by members of the Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Task Force
SMI | Feb 2025 “CEOs from AstraZeneca, GSK, Merck, Novo Nordisk, Novartis, Sanofi and Roche have signed the letter”
The Sustainable Healthcare Podcast
We sit down with the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition (SHC) to unpack what it really takes to decarbonize healthcare
What is the carbon footprint of academic clinical trials? A study of hotspots in 10 trials
BMJ | Oct 2024 “Clinical trials are fundamental to healthcare, however, they also contribute to anthropogenic climate change..”
Quantifying the carbon footprint of clinical trials: guidance development and case studies
BMJ | Jan 2024 “The urgency of the climate crisis requires attention from biomedical research, not least clinical trials which can involve significant greenhouse gas emissions.”
A strategy to reduce the carbon footprint of clinical trials
The Lancet | July 2021 “Clinical trials need to be decarbonised and we propose a strategy for doing so.”
Healthy patients, healthy planet: tackling the carbon footprint of clinical trials
The Sustainable Healthcare Coalition is developing a tool to track carbon emissions from clinical trials and our Chair, Dr Fiona Adshead spoke to Clinical Trials Arena about the project. While the healthcare industry is responsible for saving millions of human lives, its work comes at a considerable cost to the environment. The healthcare industry accounts for Continue reading “Healthy patients, healthy planet: tackling the carbon footprint of clinical trials”
Decarbonising Clinical Trials at Novartis
Novartis has embedded environmental sustainability across the clinical trial lifecycle, from protocol design through to close-out. This case study explains the overall approach and provides details around three targeted initiatives (investigational medication distribution, reusable shipping boxes, and clinical sample management) which are delivering significant operational, environmental, and financial benefits.
Sustainable Healthcare Coalition Launches Version 3 of the Clinical Trial Carbon Calculator
May 2026 Significant update to the free-to-use calculator delivers multi-trial analysis capability and deeper country-level modelling, enabling sponsors and researchers to make more informed decisions about the carbon impacts of their trials. The Sustainable Healthcare Coalition (SHC) in partnership with the Industry Low Carbon Clinical Trials (iLCCT) Consortium, announce the release of Version 3 of the Clinical Trial Continue reading “Sustainable Healthcare Coalition Launches Version 3 of the Clinical Trial Carbon Calculator”
Decarbonizing clinical trials: Where sustainability meets operational excellence
ERM Blog released on 11th May.
