Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Andheri West has achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first healthcare facility in India and the wider southern Asian region—and the fifth worldwide—to receive the Joint Commission International (JCI) Certificate of Distinction in Healthcare Sustainability.
Introduced in January 2025, this certification serves as a global standard for evaluating how effectively hospitals reduce their environmental footprint while upholding strong clinical performance. Created in collaboration with the International Hospital Federation’s Geneva Sustainability Centre, the framework requires medical institutions to show verified improvements in areas such as energy consumption, emissions reduction, resource management and eco-conscious clinical practices.
One of the most impactful changes at Kokilaben Hospital was the overhaul of anaesthesia practices. The facility eliminated high-emission anaesthetic gases in favour of low-impact alternatives, significantly lowering the carbon footprint of its operating theatres.
Another notable shift was the adoption of low-carbon inhalers, replacing traditional metered-dose inhalers that use propellants with high global-warming potential. “This has been introduced for two to three years,” said the hospital’s CEO, Dr. Santosh Shetty.
The hospital’s laboratories also implemented serum tube consolidation, a process that reduces the number of collection tubes required per patient. According to Dr. Shetty, this step has helped decrease plastic use, chemical waste and the overall environmental burden of lab operations.
Additional sustainability initiatives included switching to turbine-based ventilators that operate without power-heavy air compressors, installing LED surgical lights and introducing diagnostic platforms that use fewer materials per test.
During the certification review, JCI auditors assessed whether these interventions led to clear, quantifiable reductions in emissions and resource usage across routine clinical activities — a standard that Kokilaben Hospital is now among the first in the world to successfully meet.
(Representational Image)