Claudia von Hammerstein & Theresa Enzinger
Enabling Sustainability Through Digital Health
Healthcare and climate change are tightly linked: the sector is both impacted by extreme weather and a significant source of emissions. Digital health offers practical ways to address both—cutting carbon through virtual care and smarter operations while strengthening resilience with data, early warning, and coordinated response.
Digital health emerges as a powerful tool in this context, offering transformative potential to enhance sustainability.
Telemedicine reduces travel and infrastructure demand, shrinking the sector’s carbon footprint. Inside hospitals, IoT sensors and energy management systems optimize lighting, HVAC, and maintenance, lowering consumption and cost. Data analytics improves forecasting and supply chains, cutting waste and enabling greener procurement. For adaptation, health data linked with climate signals powers early warnings, targeted outreach, and faster public-health response—while mobile apps and wearables guide vulnerable groups through heat, vector-borne risks, and emergencies. Together, these capabilities turn sustainability from a side project into a measurable feature of everyday care.
When Climate and Care Converge:
Digital’s Dual Role
What you’ll learn
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How telemedicine mitigates emissions by reducing travel and easing facility expansion needs
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How smart energy management and predictive maintenance improve hospital efficiency and cut consumption
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How analytics reduce waste and enable greener procurement through better forecasting and supply-chain insight
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How early warning systems, surveillance platforms, and mHealth apps strengthen climate adaptation and emergency response
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Which collaborations and policy priorities help scale sustainable digital health across settings and regions
Claudia von Hammerstein is a Partner at McKinsey & Company and a global leader in Life Sciences and Healthcare. With over 15 years of experience spanning the US, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, she specializes in driving innovation and strategic transformation across healthcare systems, life sciences companies, and public health organizations. Claudia also leads the global Sustainability and Health work within the McKinsey Health Institute, focusing on advancing sustainability in healthcare.
About the Author
Claudia von Hammerstein
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Theresa Enzinger is a project manager at McKinsey & Company with expertise in pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and sustainability. Over the past five years, she has worked with life sciences companies and public health organizations to integrate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles into their strategies, fostering sustainable growth and innovation in the healthcare sector.
About the Author
Theresa Enzinger
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