Background Healthcare centres and hospitals consume significant amounts of resources, particularly energy and water. For example, energy is consumed by medical equipment, air-conditioning and heating systems, lighting, etc. Water is consumed in the many sanitation facilities and during the rigorous cleaning of surfaces, equipment and clothes, which is necessary in healthcare establishments. These establishments also produce a lot of very different types of waste. This includes wastewater, food and packaging waste, as well as (potentially) hazardous, infectious and radioactive wastes that are specific to hospitals and medical facilities. Air emissions are also generated as a result of energy consumption. The priority for hospitals has been, understandably, to focus on healthcare performance inside the hospital above other considerations. However, approaches which only focus on removing waste from the hospital or delivering a particular outcome inside the hospital can produce significant environmental impacts outside. Objectives The LIFE BOHEALTH project aims to reduce the environmental impact of health services by showing their real environmental and economic impact over their entire life cycle. It aims to support health service managers in reducing the environmental impacts associated with these services through the development of Sustainable Action Plans. The project will develop a practical approach to supporting the decision-making process of health service managers, based on the PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Adjust) method. It will: Identify the “key performance indicators” (KEPIs) and “functional units” that best fit health sector characteristics, in order to monitor and control these aspects; Use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Life Cycle Costing (LCC) methodologies to identify, quantify, prioritise and monitor environmental impacts, and to highlight hidden or external costs; Identify the Best Available Techniques (BATs) that can be applied to reduce these impacts, based on technical, environmental and economic assessments; Develop a web-tool application to facilitate the selection of the most appropriate interventions for each participating health centre. Through this work, the project expects to support, with quantitative data, the definition of “Sustainable Action Plans” for application in each participating centre. This will then enable a clear and quantitative comparison between the before and after situation - from an economic and environmental perspective. Expected results: A list of Best Available Technologies for reducing the environmental impact of the healthcare sector – and Key Performance Indicators for monitoring performance. A web-tool application to facilitate the selection of the most appropriate interventions for each hospital or healthcare centre, taking into account its specific characteristics; The definition of “Sustainable Action Plans” for each participating health centre, based on a Life Cycle Thinking approach. The implementation of the action plans in health centres, allowing them to progressively work towards the achievement of the following targets: o Resource consumption reduced by 10%. o Waste reduced by 10% o Water saving of 20% o Energy saving of 10% o Waste recycling increased by 30% o CO2 emissions reduced by 15% o Water emissions reduced by 10%