Introduction

Quick start user guide

The first step to reducing the carbon footprint of any activity is to understand which of its constituent elements are carbon intense. The industry Low Carbon Clinical Trials (iLCCT) collaboration has developed an approach to measure the carbon footprint of trials. This approach will assist trial designers to incorporate environmental sustainability concepts into their decision-making before the trial is initiated as well as during its operation. It is also vital to ensure that the footprint of trials, wherever and however they are initiated and run, can be measured utilising an industry standard, and reported on a consistent and credible basis.

The collaboration has developed Method and Guidance documents to assist trial practitioners and sponsors in assessing their trials’ carbon footprints. The programme has also published the clinical trial carbon calculator as an easy-access online tool to enable users to generate estimates of a clinical trial’s carbon footprint by activity.

Calculator: https://clinicaltrialcarbon.org
Method & Guidance: https://shcoalition.org/assessing-a-clinical-trial/