How Philips is working with hospitals to cut medical equipment emissions

Dutch medical equipment company Philips is counting on circular business models and eco-design consultations with hospitals and other healthcare organizations to advance its commitment to net-zero emissions by 2045. 

The company delivered early on a 2025 promise to develop all new products using EcoDesign principles, according to its 2024 integrated financial and sustainability report published Feb. 21. 

The framework calls for reducing energy consumption, eliminating hazardous substances, choosing lighter weight and/or recycled materials for packaging, and introducing service models that prioritize durability, reuse and upgradability.

What’s more, Philips is close to meeting a pledge to offer takeback programs for its medical equipment and to generate at least 25 percent of its revenue from circular business models for replacing or upgrading Philips products. These include everything from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) systems to patient monitors to electronic toothbrushes.

Both programs are crucial for addressing the vast majority of Philips’ annual greenhouse gas emissions, which shrank slightly to 4,398,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent for 2024, according to the company’s sustainability chief.

“Circularity is super important to reach science-based targets and climate emissions targets,” said Robert Metzke, senior vice president and global head of sustainability at Philips. “Half of the emissions reductions need to come from circularity, but driving for climate solutions touches many more impact areas than just climate.”

Why product redesigns matter

Philips, which reported close to $19 billion in sales for 2024, is one of a handful of multinationals that publish an environmental profit and loss (EP&L) statement that puts a monetary value on its planetary impact. For 2024, Philips reported an EP&L of about $4 billion, off slightly from 2023.

Most of Philips’ environmental impact (plus or minus 48 percent) is related to use of sold products, and much of that is linked to energy consumption, according to that analysis. The conglomerate’s largest impacts after customer use comes from raw materials, packaging, water consumption, waste, volatile organic compounds and related processes. 

Those insights drove Philips to prioritize changes to its hardware as an avenue for emissions reduction. For example, the company speeded scanning for imaging equipment using artificial intelligence, cutting energy consumption. It has also introduced MRI magnetics that use a very small amount of helium — a super-scarce, super expensive gas — for cooling. That feature, BlueSeal, has saved 2.75 million liters since 2018.   

Philips, which spends about 9 percent of its annual revenue on research and development, pushed more of that money into the business units for customer-facing projects in 2023. The EcoDesign approach appeals to the growing number of healthcare organizations that are becoming more concerned about environmental sustainability and asking suppliers for emissions reduction plans, Metzke said. The sector contributes 9 percent of U.S. emissions when including the gases for patient treatment, such as anesthesia or inhalers.

“Three-quarters of the impact of hospitals are in their supply chains,” said Metzke. This is substantial. Once they understand that, they become more keen to understand what they are buying.”

Close to 70 percent of healthcare organizations have made some commitment to address climate change, according to a 2023 report by Practice Greenhealth, which represents approximately 1,700 hospitals focused on sustainability. About the same percentage is applying those concerns to procurement.

“Most sustainability initiatives can also save money,” said Gwyneth Jones, director of network learning and innovation at Practice Greenhealth. “The resilience piece is huge. Hospitals are anchor organizations [in their communities]. The focus on how they can become more resilient is huge.”

The Philips pitch: Decarbonization reduces healthcare costs

Some large Philips customers are helping the company develop new services that deliver emissions cuts while improving patient care. A common theme: Doctors and clinicians are deeply involved.  

For example, Philips is collaborating with Vanderbilt University Medical Center to identify approaches that can reduce emissions associated with radiology departments. The ultrasound, magnetic resonance, computed tomography and X-rays machines across Vanderbilt’s system are used for about 12,000 patient scans a month. Their impact over 10 years is about the same as driving 1,000 gas-fueled cars in a year, according to their research.

One surprising revelation: 44-75 percent of the energy used by this equipment happens outside of patient scanning times, suggesting a need for automation that addresses that consumption and for new healthcare practices for managing these machines. It’s not just the technology, either. Roughly 10 percent of the emissions came from production and use of linens, and 8 percent was related to disposable supplies. 

“We can’t just have linear thinking about how to address this,” said Dr. John Scheel, professor of radiology and vice chair of global health for Vanderbilt’s radiology and radiological sciences department. “We’re really trying to sift through the data and come up with a logical solution. We’re trying to use this information and these thought experiments so it does good.”

Another example of how Philips collaborates with customers involves Miami-based Jackson Health System, which runs one of the largest public health networks in the U.S. 

Jackson Health expects a transition to Philips digital patient monitors to cut the emissions associated with this equipment by 47 percent. At the same time, it’s eliminating the need for 420,000 AA disposable batteries and approximately 6.5 million sheets of paper. The estimated cost of using this technology over 10 years will save Jackson Health about $1.2 million.

Philips’s five-year contract with another customer, the Champalimaud Foundation, comes with financial penalties if it fails to help the Portuguese cancer and biomedical research center cut the carbon footprint from its diagnostic and imaging equipment in half by 2028. This is being accomplished, according to Metzke, not just by switching to lower-emissions equipment but by shortening patient stays and reducing readmissions, which lowers the footprint.

During the first year, Champalimaud reported a 24 percent cut in its radiology and nuclear medicine department per patient exam. “If we help them achieve their target, or our joint target, to reduce emissions by 50 percent, then we get an additional part of the payment released,” Metzke said. “And if we don’t … So we have skin in the game.”

This sort of contract isn’t yet common, but it could be. “I think it’s fair if you really want to do something together that you think about risk sharing,” Metzke said. 

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