The Power of Education to Reduce the Carbon Footprint of Volatile Anesthetics in Clinical Practice.

Background: Due to their chemical nature as fluorinated hydrocarbon compounds, volatile anesthetics are highly potent greenhouse gases, with desflurane having by far the largest CO2-equivalent (CO2e) footprint. In everyday clinical practice, the CO2e footprint can easily be reduced through the increased use of propofol or sevoflurane as well as low- and minimal-flow techniques or through the more frequent use of regional anesthesia techniques. We wanted to assess to what extent educational measures on sustainability aspects of the use of volatile anesthetics had an impact on daily practice in anesthesiology departments and to what extent this influenced the hospital's CO2e emissions.