Carbon footprint remained stable
In 2019, our carbon footprint remained at the same level as in the previous year. Our operations generated greenhouse gas emissions amounting to about 74,000 tons of CO2 equivalent; this is our carbon footprint. The figure includes energy consumption (electricity, district heating), energy production (natural gas, oil), use of hospital gases (nitrous oxide and anesthetic gases), waste management and fuel consumption by HUS vehicles and mobile machinery.
The major sources of greenhouse gas emissions are electricity and district heating. These account for 35% to 45% each, or 70% to 90% in all, of our greenhouse gas emissions. These are followed by natural gas use, atmospheric emissions of hospital gases, waste management transports and final processing at waste processing plants. Differences year on year in greenhouse gas emissions are caused by differences in heating needs due to the weather, changes in the building stock and thereby above all in electricity consumption, changes in the generating of electricity and purchased heating, and reduced consumption of nitrous oxide.
As our operations grow, so does our carbon footprint. Since 2015, our carbon footprint has grown by 10%. However, relative to the volume of operations we find that emissions per patient visit have actually decreased by 10% since 2015.