Project Drawdown

Inhaled anesthetics are potent greenhouse gases. Waste anesthetic gases (WAGs) are routinely vented off facility rooftops, where their emissions to the outdoor environment are currently not controlled. Several simple strategies can reduce these emissions, and serve to protect public health, without compromising patient care:

Utilize low fresh gas flows
Avoid high impact inhaled anesthetics: desflurane, nitrous oxide
Consider intravenous and regional techniques
Decommission/avoid installing nitrous oxide centralized piping, and substitute portable tanks that remain closed between use
Consider investing in WAG trapping (for volatiles only) or WAG destroying (all inhaled anesthetics, including nitrous oxide) technology, only after all aforementioned interventions are maximized and institution cost/benefit analyses performed

Adapted from the ASA Anesthesiology Sustainability Checklist.

How’s your facility doing?

Some institutions have made great progress in reducing their inhaled anesthetic footprint, while others are just beginning. It is critical to measure the current state of emissions, and track mitigation progress. Project Drawdown aims to benchmark facility-level inhaled anesthetic carbon footprints, as well as per-case averages, to compare and inspire performance improvement efforts.

Enter your annual facility inhaled anesthetic volume through the Yale Gassing Greener app or via our online inhaled anesthetic CO2 survey. By participating in this study, you will contribute to a growing body of knowledge to help leverage carbon drawdown in the healthcare sector across the globe. Participants may opt to receive a report of their facility carbon footprint results and can track changes over time.

How’s your personal practice?

Discover the carbon emissions of your inhaled anesthetic use with our free calculators and try the recommended educational practice settings! Access through the mobile Yale Gassing Greener app or directly below.

For anesthesia providers:

For nitrous oxide analgesia providers:

Get the free Yale Gassing Greener app

Yale Gassing Greener helps anesthesia providers build environmentally conscious practices. Developed by Yale University’s Department of Anesthesiology, the app features two calculators that provide reports on carbon emissions based on clinician and facility use of inhaled anesthetics. The clinician calculator allows anesthesia providers to enter amounts and flow rates of inhaled anesthetics in a case and obtain their carbon emission equivalents. A facility calculator allows perioperative personnel to enter amounts of purchased inhaled anesthetics and receive a comprehensive emailed report of their facility’s carbon emissions. By informing practitioners about the global warming impact of their anesthetic choices, Yale Gassing Greener hopes to encourage environmental awareness in clinical practice.

Yale Gassing Greener is a free software application and is currently available in English.

Apple IOS | Android

Last updated on 2016-11-08.