Giving Compass' Take:

· Despite being responsible for 10 percent of all US carbon emissions, Reuters reports that the healthcare industry is not supporting the environment or efforts for sustainability.

· How can philanthropy encourage the healthcare industry to take action? Should healthcare organizations be required to give back to the environment? 

· Here's a guide for some of the most major environmental issues and how you can help.

Compared to big corporations in other sectors of the economy, most healthcare organizations - even large ones - appear to be falling short when it comes to finding ways to protect the environment, a new study suggests.

Few of the 49 largest healthcare organizations had reported efforts toward sustainability, according to the study published in JAMA Network Open. Unlike large corporations in other sectors, many of those involved with healthcare didn’t appear to be concerned about issues such as pollution, waste generation and disposal, and water use.

“The take home message is that large healthcare organizations in the United States, which have become a major sector in American industry, are not doing a good job of putting sustainability forward,” study coauthor Dr. Phil Landrigan told Reuters Health in a phone interview.

Read the full article about healthcare by Linda Carroll at Reuters.