The Patient Care Pathway Consortium
A collaboration to measure the environmental impact of patient care
Healthcare accounts for around 4–5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. A significant share of that footprint sits within clinical care pathways – the journeys patients take through health systems, from diagnosis to treatment and beyond. Yet there has been no standardised way to consistently measure that impact.
The Patient Care Pathway (PCP) Consortium was established in January 2026 to address this gap.
Convened by the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition (SHC), the Consortium brings together leading pharmaceutical, medtech, and health system organisations. Together, we are working to standardise and scale a credible methodology for measuring the environmental footprint of patient care pathways, and to make this a routine part of care pathway decision-making across health systems globally.
Our ambition
The Consortium’s ambition is a future in which every healthcare system can assess and act on the environmental impact of its care pathways using a validated, internationally recognised methodology.
How we will get there
To achieve our ambition, members are working together to:
- Establish a shared evidence base – bridging data gaps across care pathways and markets to build robust, comparable environmental impact data
- Drive adoption of the SHC care pathway methodology – supporting healthcare providers, commissioners, and industry partners to apply a consistent approach to pathway-level environmental assessment
- Equip clinicians and healthcare decision-makers – developing tools and educational content that make environmental assessment accessible to those designing, evaluating and selecting care pathways
- Contribute to international standards – helping embed care pathway environmental assessment within emerging regulatory and reporting frameworks
How the Consortium works
The Consortium operates on pre-competitive principles. Members work collectively, sharing knowledge and resources in areas where collaboration serves a common purpose, without compromising their individual competitive positions.
The Consortium’s work is grounded in SHC’s care pathway framework, and complements the objectives of the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI). By building consensus across industry, health systems, and policymakers, the Consortium strengthens the evidence base, consistency and practical application of environmental assessment across healthcare systems.
Our members
The PCP Consortium brings together organisations from across the pharmaceutical, medtech, and health system sectors, united by a shared commitment to sustainable care.
Industry members
Health system partners
NHS England, NHS Scotland, and NHS Wales participate as health system partners, contributing clinical and system-level expertise to the Consortium’s work.
Technical partner
The SHC care pathway methodology was developed and is maintained in technical partnership with ERM (Environmental Resources Management), the world’s largest pure-play sustainability consultancy.
Interested in joining the Consortium?
The PCP Consortium welcomes enquiries from organisations interested in contributing to this work. Whether you are a pharmaceutical company, a medtech organisation, or a health system looking to embed environmental assessment into your pathway evaluation processes, we would like to hear from you.
