Climate Challenge Awards

We celebrate action

Health Care Climate Challenge (HCCC) participants are on the cutting edge of defining what truly climate-smart health care can and should be. Each year, we recognize their progress and commitments with our Climate Champion Awards. It's an opportunity to celebrate achievements across our three pillars of mitigation, resilience, and leadership and to showcase their leadership to the health care sector around the world.

New participation requirements

Health Care Without Harm will feature and celebrate an active cohort of participants annually. These members are recognized for their work in the three pillars and reporting of their progress each year.

The criteria to be considered an active participant of the HCCC are different for institutions joining for the first time versus those that have been participating for more than one year.

First time participants requirements

Sign the HCCC pledge
Complete the institution profile
Estimate and report baseline GHG emissions
Report GHG emissions reduction targets*

Requirements to participate for awards

Update the institution profile
Complete data on the three HCCC pillars: Leadership, Resilience, and Mitigation

*Targets may be reviewed or updated at any time year on year.

Timeline

To be considered a participant of the HCCC, institutions must submit their data at any time before September 15*. Awards will be announced in December of each year.

*Please note that some regional offices and partners use the same data forms for other programs, which may result in earlier deadlines. To avoid missing participation in other programs, it is advisable to check with your regional contact whether data must be submitted before September 15. This will help ensure that you meet all the submission deadlines and do not miss out on any other programs.

New awards categories

Health Care Climate Action Awards

The Health Care Climate Action Awards will continue to cover the three pillars of the Challenge: Mitigation, Leadership, and Resilience. Depending on the number and nature of actions reported, participants may receive a Silver Award or a Gold Award.

Health Care Climate Champions Awards

A new, high level award was introduced in 2023 to celebrate the top three institutions of each region that stood out for their ambitious, comprehensive, and consistent work in climate action throughout the year: Health Care Climate Champions Awards.

Health Care Climate Champions are true climate leaders with a strong commitment to comprehensive climate action and a dedication to continuously improving sustainable practices across the three pillars of climate action.

New evaluation criteria

Health Care Climate Action Awards

There is a two step evaluation to grant Health Care Climate Action Awards in Leadership and Resilience:

Reporting all priority actions (interventions that need to be reported for receiving an award).
Number of actions reported or a minimum percentage of possible actions in case that some are not applicable for the institution.

For Mitigation Awards, the evaluation steps are:

Reporting data for key sources (Scope 1, Scope 2, business travels, and waste).
Estimating emissions reduction percentage compared to the previous years.

Health Care Climate Champions Awards

The Health Care Climate Champions will be chosen by the regional offices or partners based on a thorough evaluation of both qualitative and quantitative data provided in the submissions. The qualitative evaluation is based on a guideline developed by Health Care Without Harm that outlines the main principles and features to be regarded when selecting the award recipient.

* To be eligible for awards, organizations must be an official participant in the Health Care Climate Challenge while setting their targets and tracking their progress through Hippocrates Data Center.