Mayo Clinic – Amanda Spinner – 2021
Goals
Health care is responsible for 8.5% of U.S. GHG emissions. As one of the largest not-for-profit academic health systems in the U.S., Mayo Clinic recognizes that it contributes to this percentage and has a responsibility to help reduce it. Mayo Clinic had yet to measure their own emissions, so they enlisted Amanda Spinner to create a framework and system for calculating Mayo Clinic’s carbon footprint and measure the Rochester campus’s emissions as a starting point.
Solutions
Amanda started the summer by conducting more than 20 informational interviews across the organization. This enabled Amanda to map out all emissions producing processes and understand the data available to measure these. Using this information, Amanda executed the following:
- Excel Template Development: Amanda developed two excel templates in accordance with the GHG Protocol; one to calculate Rochester emissions year over year and the second for all other Mayo Clinic facilities.
- Inventory Management Plan: This document outlined the steps for collecting, calculating, and maintaining GHG data at the Rochester campus, ensuring consistency and providing transparency for a 3rd-party verifier.
- Rochester Footprint Calculation: The Rochester campus’s footprint was calculated, for scope 1, scope 2, and select scope 3 categories.
Potential Impact
Mayo Clinic now has emissions data for scope 1, 2, and select scope 3 categories at their Rochester campus. They also have the tools to calculate this year over year and the tools to begin collecting this data at other facilities. Mayo Clinic is now one step closer to setting specific goals for further reducing their emissions. Throughout the summer, Amanda also educated various departments on the process to calculate a carbon footprint, raising awareness of the project and its future work and its importance in the context of climate change.
