The health research we fund has an impact on the environment and can contribute to climate change. Clinical research alone is estimated to be responsible for the equivalent of 100 million tonnes of CO2 emissions each year – comparable to the 40th largest emitting country in the world (Luck & Farley, 2023). A degraded ecosystem and a climate in crisis are not environments in which science or health can thrive.
Wellcome commissioned and worked with RAND Europe to identify existing tools and methods being used to measure and reduce the environmental impacts of health research.
The report also addresses how actors across the research sector might use these initiatives. Wellcome knows that many scientific researchers, including those that we fund, are deeply concerned about the environmental impact of their work. We hope that by sharing these findings, we can highlight existing tools and methods that can be used across the health research sector, and drive action in research sustainability.
Different types of research affect the environment in different ways.
- Wet labs tend to be energy hungry (EPA, 2008). On average research in a biosciences lab is estimated to be nearly three times that of a similarly sized office (RSC, 2022). They also produce large amounts of plastic waste – one researcher in a bioscience lab is estimated to generate just under one ton of plastic waste per year (Urbina, 2015).
- Data driven computational health research uses lots of energy to store data and train models, which is linked to significant carbon emissions (Lannelongue, 2023). Additionally, unsustainable mining practices and e-waste disposal impact the environment throughout the lifecycle of research hardware used daily (Samuel & Lucassen, 2022).
- Clinical trial carbon emissions are associated with energy consumed in their coordinating centers, in addition to trial related travel, material distributions and delivery (BMJ, 2007).
- Social sciences often owe their largest carbon emissions to fieldwork related travel (ALLEA, 2022).
From researcher to funder, the findings and recommendations outlined in this report can help guide the entire health research sector to be more environmentally sustainable.