Action Collaborative on Achieving a Climate Resilient and Sustainable Health Sector
The Action Collaborative on Achieving a Climate Resilient and Sustainable Health Sector (Climate Collaborative) provides a neutral platform for its participants to align around shared goals and collective action on decarbonization, sustainability, and resilience, grounded in evidence, shared solutions, and a commitment to improving health.
Members of the Climate Collaborative represent health and hospital systems, clinicians, private payers, biopharmaceutical and medical device companies, health care services, health professional education, academia, nonprofits, and the federal government.
About the Program
Recognizing the critical need to address climate change through health sector leadership, the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) launched the Climate Collaborative, a public-private partnership of leaders from across the health system committed to addressing the sector’s environmental impact while strengthening its sustainability and resilience.
Climate change is increasingly affecting people’s health and the ability of the US health care system to effectively respond to increases in extreme climate-related events. Improving the carbon footprint of the entire health ecosystem can drastically lower the approximately 8.5% of US carbon emissions for which it is responsible, while also having significant health, social, and economic benefits. There is a need to activate all parts of the health sector for sustainable change.
The Climate Collaborative’s work focuses on health care supply chain; health care delivery; health professional education; and a cross-cutting group on sector-wide integration and foundational transformation.
Featured
Implementing the Health Sector Climate Action Survey
This tool helps streamline how suppliers report climate and sustainability data—saving time, reducing duplication, and supporting aligned climate action.
Important Definitions
These are guiding definitions that characterize our work, not official definitions of the NAM.
Health Care Emissions
Emissions that stem from health care facility operations, purchased energy, supply chain of goods and services, and investments.
Decarbonization
A broad array of activities that institutions can participate in to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions an mitigate their contributions to climate change.
Scope 1
Fuels burned assets owned by the organizations, which typically include natural gas, anesthetic gas, and diesel/gasoline fuels.
Scope 2
Emissions purchased from steam and electricity.
Scope 3
Other emissions sources, including purchased goods and services, investments, capital good, employee commuting, energy emissions not in Scope 1 or 2, waste management, business travel, and leased assets.
Grand Challenge
Climate and Health
The Climate Collaborative is part of the NAM Climate Grand Challenge, a multiyear global initiative to improve and protect human health and well-being by working to transform systems that both contribute to and are impacted by climate change.
Climate and Health Movement
Climate Action Showcase
The showcase offers resources, tools, and ideas for other organizations in the health sector and beyond to replicate as they pursue efforts to address climate change and health—no matter where they are on their journey, their type of organization, or the category of climate action they choose to pursue.
Program Team
Co-Chairs
Staff
Sponsors
*Current sponsors as of July 2025
Contact Information
Want to get involved?
Contact us at [email protected]. You can also join our mailing list for program updates.
