Medacta and Swiss Climate partner for the environment

Medacta and Swiss Climate partner for the environment

Following the continuous growth of GMK Efficiency, Medacta is proud to announce the renewed collaboration with Swiss Climate, an expert company in the areas of CO2 management, environmental sustainability and energy. The collaboration with Swiss Climate began in 2013 and since then Medacta has been sponsoring environmental projects for sustainable development and renewable energies all over the world.

Before the global launch of GMK Efficiency single use instrumentation for total knee replacement – which has experienced sustained growth since its introduction into the market – Swiss Climate completed an environmental impact analysis in collaboration with Medacta. Swiss Climate calculated the CO2 equivalent emissions (CO2e) associated to each step of the GMK Efficiency life cycle and evaluated the impact on a per-surgery basis, making it possible to compare the CO2e associated with the conventional metal instrumentation life cycle and the GMK Efficiency CO2e value.

Based on studies conducted in hospitals in Switzerland, UK, USA and Canada which calculated the total amount of CO2 emissions during one-year of practice, and on the analysis by Swiss Climate on CO2 emissions linked to GMK Efficiency usage, it was calculated that if these hospitals had used GMK Efficiency instead of re-usable metal instrumentation, the additional CO2 emissions would have accounted for a minuscule increase between 0.04% and 0.2% of their yearly emissions [1-3]. 
 
For continual environmental responsibility, Medacta completely offsets the total amount of CO2 connected to GMK Efficiency. Through active support for environmental sustainability projects initiated by Swiss Climate, Medacta GMK Efficiency instrumentation was rewarded with the “CO2 neutral” certificate. 
It is also important to note that by eliminating washing and sterilization, which are mandatory steps to prepare the metal instrumentation for surgery, the GMK Efficiency offers a saving of about 400 litres of water for every knee operation [4-6].
Discover more about GMK Efficiency carbon footprint on the dedicated webpage!
 
 
References:
[1] The impact of surgery on global climate: a carbon footprinting study of operating theatres in three health systems - A J MacNeil, R Lilywhite, C J Brown - Lancet Planet Health 2017
[2] DATA from SWISSCLIMATE regarding Insel group in Bern
[3] DATA from SWISSCLIMATE report
[4] Getinge 46 Washer Disinfector - Service instructions
[5] Recommendations for Cleaning, Decontamination and Sterilization of Medacta International Orthopedic Devices.
[6] Priorclave North America Report, 2013. 58 | 59