Asia-Pacific Sustainability Action Awards-Sustainability Action Awards SDG13:Gold
National Taiwan University Hospital
Low-Carbon Anesthesia: Transforming Perioperative Care for a Sustainable Future
Low-Carbon Anesthesia is a department-wide sustainability program at National Taiwan University Hospital that transforms routine perioperative practice into measurable climate action. The project integrates volatile anesthetic carbon auditing, desflurane source reduction, low-flow sevoflurane anesthesia, total intravenous anesthesia, end-tidal control technology, and soda lime stewardship into a practical governance model for greener operating rooms. Building on a peer-reviewed six- year audit of sevoflurane and desflurane use, which showed a 42.4% reduction in CO2e per general- anesthesia case from 2018 to 2023; updated datat till 2025 show continued progress, with desflurane procurement 72.0% below the 2018 baseline and total-anesthetic CO2e 69.7% lower by 2025. In parallel, a 2025 frontline quality-improvement project standardized soda lime filling and replacement, reducing weekly consumption by 28%, cutting 1,077 kg of waste annually, and improving staff satisfaction from 46.0% to 87.7%. Together, these actions demonstrate that patient safety, cost control, workflow efficiency, and environmental responsibility can be advanced simultaneously.