The SHC care pathway method
A structured, repeatable approach to measure the carbon footprint of care pathways.
Our care pathway method is a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach, aligned with ISO 14040/14044 and the GHG Protocol Product Standard, to measure the environmental impact of whole care pathways, from diagnosis through treatment to aftercare, rather than individual products alone.
Developed with NHS England and updated in 2026, it’s designed for clinicians, planners and industry teams to use at any scale and with whatever data is available. The method also underpins our free Patient Care Pathways Carbon Calculator, which supports a high-level appraisal of a pathway as an early step towards a full LCA.
Our method guides you through a full assessment of a care pathway, from initial scoping to reporting your results.
First, clarify what you’re assessing and why:
which patients, condition and setting, and how the findings will be used. This sets the boundaries of the assessment and the “unit” all your results will be measured against.
Next, map the care pathway in detail:
every activity involved, how often it happens and how activities group into simple building blocks, such as a GP appointment, a hospital bed day or patient travel. Keeping activities distinct at this stage avoids double counting later.
Then, identify the activities with the biggest environmental impact...
and focus your data collection there, using real-world data where it’s available and best estimates where it isn’t. Each activity’s impact is calculated and combined, based on how often it occurs, to give the total impact of the pathway.
Finally, interpret the results to find where the impact is concentrated...
report your findings and use them to make the case for change, whether that’s redesigning a pathway or informing a wider decision.
For more detail, read the full method document.
