Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Clinical Trials Carbon Calculator?

This free online tool helps research teams assess the carbon footprint of clinical trials. It measures your overall footprint and carbon intensity per participant, and identifies greenhouse gas emission hotspots across trial design, operation, and management.

The calculator is one component of the Clinical Trials Assessment Framework  , a suite of guidance and tools, including Method and Guidance documents, designed to help health system stakeholders understand and reduce the environmental impact of clinical research. For a comprehensive assessment, the calculator should be used alongside the full Framework rather than as a standalone measure.

It has been developed through a collaboration including the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition, Pistoia Alliance, the Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Task Force, and publicly-funded clinical trials units.

What can I do with the results of the calculator?

The calculator is designed primarily as a decision-support tool, to help trial teams understand the relative scale of their emissions, identify carbon hotspots, and prioritise areas for reduction across the design, management, and operation of a trial.

How accurate are the results?

The calculator is not a full life cycle assessment (LCA). A formal LCA conducted to ISO 14040/14044 standards involves comprehensive primary data collection across the entire product system, including drug manufacture, supply chain, and other upstream activities, and typically requires significant time and specialist resource. The calculator instead uses a streamlined, activity-based methodology drawing on publicly available emission factors, making it accessible for trial teams without dedicated sustainability expertise.

The calculator includes trial-related investigational product emissions, covering manufacture (using ABPI-rated emission factors), packaging, and distribution logistics, but does not extend to activities performed by regulators reviewing and approving trials, as these fall outside the direct control of trial teams. Users with more precise manufacture data can override the default emission factors with their own cradle-to-gate figures. The validity of the results is also dependent on the quality and completeness of the activity data you provide, and the emission factors used may become more refined as the field develops.

That said, the calculator's outputs are broadly consistent with what more resource-intensive approaches produce. Full LCAs of clinical trials across multiple phases and disease areas, conducted by J&J Innovative Medicine, found that five activity categories - drug product manufacture and distribution, patient travel, monitoring visit travel, laboratory sample logistics, and sponsor staff commuting - account for at least 79% of average trial emissions. The calculator captures the majority of these same categories, meaning its results are well-positioned to reflect the key drivers of a trial's footprint even without full LCA rigour.

Can I use the results for external reporting?

There is currently no mandatory requirement to report clinical trial emissions as a standalone figure, and no regulatory body formally assesses or validates such disclosures. However, the direction of travel is clear. The launch of this calculator coincided with an open letter from CEOs of Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Task Force member companies, encouraging contract research organisations to measure emissions for all phase 2 and 3 clinical trials from 2025.

There is a growing body of literature calling for systematic reporting of trial emissions, with collaborative use of available tools aligned to international reporting protocols seen as a key enabler of better carbon management in clinical research.

For organisations wishing to incorporate results into corporate sustainability reporting, the calculator's outputs can contribute to Scope 3 (value chain) emissions disclosures under frameworks such as the GHG Protocol. Results should be clearly documented alongside the assumptions, emission factors, and data quality limitations inherent in the methodology, in line with standard transparency expectations for carbon reporting. Teams seeking a more auditable result for formal disclosure purposes should consider using the calculator alongside the full Assessment Framework, or commissioning a formal LCA for trials where regulatory or investor scrutiny is expected.

Are we only collecting data that is truly necessary?

Yes. The calculator collects only the minimum data required to generate a carbon estimate. No account registration, personal identifiers, or ancillary data are collected.

1. Is access to client data strictly limited – is data shared with third parties? Data is not shared with any third parties. The calculator does not sell, share, or transmit data beyond the server-side calculation process. No third-party tracking technologies or cookies are used.

2. How long is the data retained, where is it stored geographically, and how is it protected? Data is not retained. Submissions are processed in-session to generate a result and are not stored once the calculation is complete — nothing is stored beyond the duration of the session. Data in transit is protected by TLS encryption.

3. What due diligence was conducted on third-party partners? Data is processed on Microsoft Azure infrastructure solely for the purpose of generating the calculation result and is not retained beyond the session; no other third parties have access to submitted data. The CTCC is hosted in the MS Azure UK South region.

4. What happens to the data if ownership or hosting changes? Because no data is retained, there is no user data at risk in the event of an ownership or hosting change - there is nothing to transfer, sell, or migrate. This is a material privacy protection built into the architecture of both calculators. SHC retain ownership of the calculator and full access to the underlying source code.

Further information available here: https://clinicaltrialcarbon.org/privacy-policy

How do I choose which clinical trial to appraise?

Select a trial that best represents the activity you want to understand – for example a single study you manage, a typical trial for your organisation, or a trial planned for the future. Be explicit about scope (sites, participants, duration) so results are interpretable.

What data do I need to perform an appraisal?

Collect basic trial metadata (sites, participants, duration) and activity data such as participant visits, staff and investigator travel, shipping of IP and lab kits, consumables, utilities, waste, and any outsourced services. Monetary spend can be used where quantities are unavailable but gives less accurate emissions estimates.

Do I have to enter all the fields in one go?

No — the tool is designed to accept partial data so you can progressively add more detail. Entering the most important or highest-emitting categories first will usually give the biggest improvement in result accuracy.

Why do I have to enter my country, currency and units?

Country and units ensure activity data are interpreted correctly (unit conversions, regional emission factors, and currency for monetary inputs).

Is my data safe?

The tool is intended for use with non-sensitive operational data. If you plan to enter personally identifiable or otherwise sensitive data, ensure you follow your organisation's data governance policies before uploading.

How do I share my results?

You can export or share results using the tool's reporting features (download, shareable links or screenshots). Consult the live application for available export formats and sharing options.

The exact consumable, pharmaceutical or equipment item I use isn't listed. What do I do?

Use a closely matching item from the lists, or provide quantities and let the tool apply a generic emission factor. You can also add custom items where the tool supports it.

I don't have figures for my utility use or waste. What do I do?

If utility or waste measurements aren't available, use best estimates, benchmarks, or region-appropriate averages. Document assumptions; these inputs are secondary to major activity categories like travel and shipping.

Can I save my results?

The application supports saving or exporting results so you can return later or share outputs. See the live tool for the precise save/export options.

Can I do “what if” or option analyses?

Yes — compare scenarios by adjusting inputs (e.g., fewer visits, local sourcing, virtual meetings) and re-running the appraisal to see potential emissions reductions.

Where can I get more information about assessing clinical trials or on what to do to reduce my trial's carbon footprint?

Refer to the Clinical Trials Assessment Framework and Method & Guidance documents linked from the Getting Started and Resources sections of the site.

How can I provide feedback or ask for help?

In the calculator there is a blue action button in the bottom right of the screen. Click this to access the feedback form where you can submit any feedback or questions you have about the calculator. We welcome all feedback.

Alternatively you can click this link to access the feedback form: User Feedback Form