Educating current and future healthcare professionals on evidence-based sustainable medicine

Increasing recognition of the need to deliver environmentally sustainable healthcare has led to much new research in this field. Many studies now estimate a 'carbon footprint' of an area of healthcare and often go on to highlight potential ways emissions can be reduced. Before changing their own clinical practice, healthcare professionals must be educated on the methodology and potential for biases of studies in this area. Here, we discuss the general approaches to carbon footprinting, highlight key considerations and suggest future steps which will enable clinicians to deliver evidence-based sustainable medicine.