Climate change is increasingly affecting populations worldwide, creating new challenges for health and development organisations as they work to deliver essential services while reducing their own environmental impact. This thesis explores how carbon footprint reduction strategies can be adapted to the realities of low and middle income countries (LMICs), using the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) as a case study.

The research aimed to understand how staff perceptions, priorities, and experiences can inform more realistic approaches to organisational carbon reduction without compromising health service delivery.

The study found that staff are strongly motivated to act on climate change and view emissions reduction as compatible with EGPAF’s health mandate. At the same time, there is a clear need for training, knowledge-sharing, and locally adapted guidance to enable meaningful action. Structural barriers, particularly limited funding, weak infrastructure, and reliance on high-emission practices such as business travel and diesel energy, continue to constrain progress.

These insights provide a foundation for EGPAF as it develops its organisational carbon reduction roadmap, offering insights into which measures are viewed as both a priority and feasible in LMIC settings. More broadly, the study shows that adapting carbon reduction strategies to local realities can support organisational efficiency and sustainability, while also contributing to sector-wide efforts to integrate climate action into health and development work.