Healthcare Energy - Environment - Mobility

Health data and the ecological transition: building a sustainable data and AI strategy in hospitals

Published on 05 February 2026 Read 25 min

health data ecological transition agency consulting consultancy experts

Health data now represent a major lever to improve patient care. They fuel research and development of new drugs, train and validate artificial intelligence algorithms, accelerate diagnosis and personalized medicine, and optimize healthcare organizations. Growing interest from industry players makes these data a potential economic lever for hospitals and a real attractiveness factor for the French territory, particularly for the development of clinical trials.

However, this potential comes with an environmental downside. Digital technologies already generate 3 to 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions—comparable to emissions from the entire heavy-duty truck sector—and this footprint is growing by around 6% per year¹. In France, digital activities account for 4.4% of the national carbon footprint. If no action is taken, data centers could emit up to 920 MtCO₂eq per year by 2030¹ (equivalent to twice France’s current emissions), nearly three times more than in 2020². From an economic standpoint, hospitals also have a strong incentive to address these issues: data storage and processing represent a significant cost—on the order of several million euros per year—that can be controlled from the design phase of infrastructures and projects.

In this article, Alcimed explores how to reconcile the use of health data with digital carbon sobriety, for the benefit of patients, the planet, and future generations.

Why do our data weigh so heavily on the climate?

To take effective action, it is first necessary to understand where the carbon footprint associated with data comes from.

The storage, processing, and circulation of information rely on heavy infrastructure, made up of servers grouped together in data centers. These data centers operate continuously, resulting in very high energy consumption: according to the International Energy Agency, they already account for nearly 1% of global electricity consumption, a figure that continues to rise¹. Current electronic infrastructures are particularly energy-intensive, and the share of energy in data center operating costs keeps increasing, reaching around 50% today².

This consumption is not only linked to the servers themselves. It also comes from cooling systems, which are essential to keep equipment at the right temperature, and from network infrastructures that ensure the constant transfer of data. Globally, 60% of electricity production still comes from fossil sources, directly contributing to greenhouse gas emissions³.

Cooling equipment also leads to significant water consumption: a medium-sized data center can use up to 410 million liters of water per year for cooling, equivalent to the annual consumption of around 1,000 households⁴.

Beyond energy and water, the environmental impact of data also stems from hardware. Data centers host a large number of servers, routers, hard drives, electronic boards, and batteries with limited lifespans—on average three to five years for servers, and sometimes up to seven years for network equipment. With each technological renewal, a large share of the equipment becomes obsolete. These devices generate electronic waste (e-waste), which contains toxic substances such as lead, mercury, or cadmium. If poorly managed, this waste can release pollutants into soil and water and harm human health. In 2022, global e-waste generation reached 62 million metric tons, and this volume is increasing by around 2.6 million tons per year⁵.

Finally, even before being put into service, manufacturing this equipment has a significant ecological cost: it requires large quantities of critical metals and rare earth elements—copper, aluminum, lithium, cobalt, nickel, neodymium, dysprosium, europium, yttrium, lanthanum, and others. These materials are often extracted under highly energy-intensive conditions, causing major environmental degradation: for every ton of rare earth element extracted, 2,000 tons of toxic waste are generated⁶. Their exploitation leads to habitat destruction, biodiversity loss, and groundwater pollution.

An issue still emerging in healthcare institutions

While the carbon footprint of digital technologies is gradually becoming a public debate topic, it remains relatively immature within the hospital sector. In most institutions, strategies around health data warehouses (HDWs) and associated data management are still being structured, and the integration of environmental criteria remains limited. Efforts are still largely focused on regulatory compliance and interoperability, to the detriment of a broader approach to digital sobriety.

Although the topic is still emerging, early initiatives show that awareness is beginning to grow. In recent years, several healthcare institutions have launched concrete actions to assess and reduce the carbon footprint of digital technologies.

The Hospices Civils de Lyon (HCL) have launched an ambitious digital sobriety plan aimed at reducing the environmental impact of digital technologies, covering both hardware and data. The program relied on a cross-functional working group that led to several targeted actions: adoption of a responsible digital charter, deletion of unused data, deployment of monitoring indicators, development of a best-practices guide, training for professionals, and reuse of obsolete equipment.

Other, more targeted initiatives are also emerging. The Avenir APEI association has implemented a responsible IT asset management policy, including the collection and recycling of unused equipment. For its part, Nantes University Hospital (CHU de Nantes) worked on reducing email storage by combining deletion of obsolete data, staff awareness, and the introduction of shared storage spaces to avoid duplication of attachments.

At the national level, reference tools are starting to gain traction. The guide “Responsible Digital Best Practices for Organizations”⁷, published in 2023 by the French government, provides an operational framework to reduce the environmental impact of digital activities. Although it is not specific to the healthcare sector, it offers a useful foundation to inspire hospital IT departments and data/AI teams.

Action levers for responsible digital practices in hospitals

So, what can healthcare institutions actually put in place going forward? While health data come with an environmental cost, concrete levers exist to limit their impact—from infrastructure design to governance of data usage.

Within data infrastructures, it is important to distinguish between the hardware layer, which includes the “material” footprint (servers, storage, networks, cooling, etc.), and the software layer, which drives how hardware is used and consumed. Software determines how much computing power, storage, and therefore energy the hardware mobilizes. Achieving sustainable digital sobriety therefore requires optimizing both software and physical infrastructures.

Lever 1: hardware perspective – designing more energy-efficient infrastructures

Data centers—the physical and technical infrastructure of HDWs—are at the heart of digital energy consumption. One of the first levers is to optimize their architecture to improve energy efficiency and reduce water consumption through better-designed cooling systems. Cooling often accounts for up to 40% of a data center’s total energy consumption⁸. Advanced techniques such as hot- and cold-aisle containment, liquid cooling, or the use of outside air (“free cooling”) can significantly reduce energy needs. Instead of using potable water, data centers can also rely on alternative water sources such as treated wastewater from treatment plants, rainwater, or nearby river water⁹.

Read also: Cold data storage: an ecological solution for reducing the environmental impact of data

Energy sourcing choices are also critical. Integrating renewable energy (solar panels with battery storage for surplus energy, or renewable energy suppliers) directly reduces CO₂ emissions associated with electricity consumption.

From a hardware standpoint, recent servers and equipment integrate dynamic power management features (Dynamic Voltage and Frequency Scaling, or DVFS), which automatically adjust energy consumption based on actual load. These technologies prevent processors from running at full capacity when underutilized, thereby reducing energy consumption without compromising performance.

Finally, institutions can act on equipment life cycles. Extending server lifespans, prioritizing modular and repairable components, and reusing equipment help limit e-waste generation and demand for rare metals. Adopting responsible procurement practices also contributes to this approach.

Lever 2: software perspective – adopting responsible data management

Digital sobriety also starts upstream, with sobriety in data collection. This means storing only truly useful information within HDWs and regularly deleting obsolete or redundant data. Within hospitals, implementing clear governance around data retention periods—supported by archiving and deletion processes—helps keep stored volumes under control. Working in interoperable environments also reduces data duplication across different departments or software systems.

Lever 3: establishing a culture of continuous improvement

Reducing the carbon footprint of digital technologies in hospitals is not a one-off project, but an ongoing effort. Setting up and monitoring indicators makes it possible to track changes in energy consumption and resource usage, and to identify areas for improvement.

Learn more about how our team can support you in your projects related to decarbonization >

Lever 4: raising awareness and training stakeholders

Finally, the success of a digital sobriety approach relies above all on collective buy-in and mobilization of all stakeholders.

Physicians, researchers, engineers, and administrative staff must be made aware of the environmental impact of data and the levers available to reduce it. Training sessions or workshops dedicated to digital sobriety can help spread best practices, such as limiting unnecessary processing or scheduling queries outside peak load periods.

This shared awareness across the hospital community is essential to embed data and AI strategies into a truly sustainable trajectory.

Health data represent a tremendous lever to improve quality of care, research, and prevention. However, their use relies on material and energy-intensive infrastructures whose environmental impact is often underestimated. Data centers, servers, and networks consume significant amounts of energy, and their manufacturing mobilizes rare and polluting resources. Fortunately, concrete levers exist to reduce this footprint: designing more efficient infrastructures powered by renewable energy, better managing data retention and storage, and promoting digital sobriety at every stage of the data life cycle. The challenge goes beyond technical considerations—it also involves training, awareness-raising, and embedding these practices into hospital culture.

Today, the topic is still emerging within healthcare institutions. However, some organizations are beginning to recognize the value of integrating environmental issues into their digital strategies—not only to reduce their carbon footprint, but also to rationalize infrastructures, control costs, and improve data governance.

Alcimed can help you explore decarbonization within your activities. Do not hesitate to contact our team!

About the author,

Annabelle, Consultant in Alcimed’s Innovation and Public Policy team in France

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