Net-Zero Hospitals in the Gulf Start at Design
Healthcare exists to protect health, yet it is a significant source of the emissions that threaten it. In the Gulf, where hospitals run in extreme heat, the decisions that matter most are made at design.
Climate change is an environmental emergency, and an environmental emergency is a health emergency. The health sector is responsible for roughly four to five per cent of global greenhouse-gas emissions. Hospitals use far more energy per square metre than offices, run around the clock, and produce large volumes of waste. In our region, cooling alone makes them some of the most energy-intensive buildings there are.
Why this matters
Hospitals being designed in the Gulf today will operate for forty years or more. Every decision about orientation, insulation, cooling, water and energy is locked in for decades. Boards and investors are also asking sharper questions: ESG is no longer a fashionable extra but a condition of finance and partnership.
Most of a hospital's emissions do not come from its own boilers or even its electricity. Around four-fifths come from its supply chain: medicines, equipment, food, travel and services. That is where the hardest work lies.
What I have seen work
Build green from the start. Fakeeh University Hospital in Dubai achieved LEED Gold certification, among the first teaching hospitals in the region to do so, and later joined the Terra Carta sustainability initiative. Those outcomes were decided in design, not added afterwards.
Run the building intelligently. A building management system that controls climate and energy across the facility, with key performance indicators for every chiller. Cooling is where most energy goes in a Gulf hospital, so that is where measurement matters most.
Treat water as precious. Recycled water used for landscaping first, and a culture that treats water consumption as something to manage, not ignore.
Manage waste and suppliers. Working with specialist waste companies to recycle as much as possible, and choosing suppliers, such as laundry services, partly on their environmental performance.
Remember the S and the G. Sustainability is also social and governance. Fair and transparent employment policies, accessible leadership and regular, honest communication with staff, patients and shareholders are part of a sustainable organisation.
What the region needs
Individual hospitals cannot do this alone. Health systems in the Middle East would move faster with:
- international standards for reporting healthcare emissions, such as the Greenhouse Gas Protocol;
- a named leader or team responsible for decarbonisation in every large provider;
- data systems, including electronic records, able to measure the footprint of care;
- policy and accreditation bodies that expect and reward progress;
- shared learning between providers, rather than every hospital starting from zero.
Questions for boards and leadership teams
- Do we know our hospital's carbon footprint, including our supply chain?
- Who is accountable for reducing it, and what is the target?
- In our next building project, which design decisions will determine energy use for the next forty years?
A hospital that harms the environment it serves is treating patients with one hand and making them ill with the other.
Related: Healing patients in a healthy environment (Omnia Health) and Sustainability in healthcare (Intelligent CXO), see Media.
Dr Fatih Mehmet Gul is a physician and healthcare executive who has built, commissioned and led hospitals across the Gulf and Türkiye. He is an Honorary Professor at UCL Global Business School for Health, author of Connected Care, and host of The Chief Healthcare Officer podcast.
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