Kokilaben Hospital becomes first in India to earn global sustainability distinction

Kokilaben Hospital in Mumbai is the first in India to earn JCI's Certificate of Distinction in Healthcare Sustainability, recognizing its eco-friendly practices.

MUMBAI: Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Andheri West has become the first hospital in India and southern Asia, and only the fifth worldwide, to receive the Joint Commission International’s (JCI) Certificate of Distinction in Healthcare Sustainability.

Kokilaben Hospital becomes first in India to earn global sustainability distinction

The certificate, launched in January 2025, is a global benchmarking system created by JCI in partnership with the International Hospital Federation’s Geneva Sustainability Centre. It recognises hospitals that can demonstrate measurable, verifiable reductions in their environmental impact while maintaining high standards of clinical care. Institutions must show progress across energy use, emissions, materials management, and sustainable clinical practices.

At Kokilaben Hospital, the biggest shift came in the operating theatres with the switch to low-emission anaesthetic gases. High-impact gases were phased out and replaced with alternatives that release significantly fewer greenhouse emissions, a move that sharply reduced the hospital’s clinical carbon output.

A second major change was the transition to low-carbon inhalers in place of traditional metered-dose inhalers, which rely on high-global-warming propellants. “This has been introduced for two to three years,” said Dr Santosh Shetty, the hospital’s CEO.

In its laboratories, the hospital introduced serum tube consolidation to reduce the number of tubes required per patient sample, cutting plastic consumption, chemical waste and the overall carbon footprint of lab operations, Dr Shetty added.

Other steps included adopting turbine-based ventilators that eliminate the need for energy-intensive air compressors, installing LED surgical lights, and shifting to diagnostic systems that require fewer materials per test.

For the certification, JCI auditors evaluated whether these changes translated into clear, measurable reductions in emissions and resource use across routine clinical work, a benchmark Kokilaben Hospital became one of the first globally to meet.