Assess carbon emissions
Use the Clinical Trial Carbon Calculator to compare scenarios and identify carbon trade-offs quantitatively before finalising protocol decisions. Data-driven design prevents costly environmental mistakes.
Sustainable Clinical Trials by Design
Embedding environmental considerations into clinical trials from the earliest planning stages
The most effective place to focus carbon emission reduction efforts is early during clinical trial design – rather than retrofitting environmental considerations, success will come from a Sustainability by Design approach.
Co-benefits
Applying a sustainability lens to clinical trial design can streamline trials, reducing travel for patients and monitors/CRAs and ensuring a focus on procedures and assessments/ collected samples that add value, which lowers costs and minimises participant burden.
Sustainable clinical trials that reduce supply chain complexity can also support resilience over disruption.
Explore our resources to find real-world implementation cases of where applying a sustainability lens to clinical trial design has led to multiple co-benefits including cost avoidance and improved efficiency in trial management.
The Clinical Trial Carbon Calculator was developed to evaluate and compare clinical trial design decisions, helping teams identify opportunities to reduce carbon emissions and avoid unintended environmental impacts during trial delivery.
Sustainable principles for clinical trial design & execution
Sustainable trial design rests on eight principles that should inform every protocol or operational decision from the earliest planning stages.
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Robust trial design
Effective clinical trials, planned in a way that achieves multiple outcomes, reduces patient, site and operational burden whilst reducing environmental impact.
Minimise patient and staff travel
Redesign visits, monitoring, and site logistics so fewer people need to physically move to deliver the same trial.
Minimise waste
Design out unnecessary consumables, packaging, and oversupply at the protocol and forecasting stage, and divert what remains from disposal.
Consider digital and decentralise approaches
eConsent, eCOA, telemedicine visits, at-home nursing, direct-to-patient investigational product shipments, and other decentralised trial (DCT) elements may reduce patient travel burdens and site-visit frequency.
Supply chain engagement
Streamline the manufacturing, distribution, and cold-chain logistics that move drug and materials to and from site. E.g. reduce transportation frequencies and quantities that are set-up during trial design.
Efficient site operations
Reduce the energy, space, and material footprint of running the sites and facilities a trial depends on.
Governance, incentives and culture
Navigating change can be tough. Embedding new processes into business as usual requires a robust infrastructure of process, training, tools, KPIs and governance to ensure lasting impact.
Protocol sustainability checklist
A practical tool for reviewing your trial protocol, section by section, through a sustainability lens covering study design, IP and lab logistics, devices, travel, site selection and monitoring.
Work through each topic area to identify opportunities to embed environmental considerations into your design while protecting patient safety and study integrity.
Remember that each trial is different and some questions will not be appropriate for your trial.
Caution: Decisions made to reduce carbon emissions can unintentionally shift them elsewhere or even increase the overall footprint. Use the Clinical Trial Carbon Calculator scenario functionality to compare design choices and understand carbon trade-offs before committing to a protocol.
