Health & Care
for a healthy Earth
While necessary to maintain and improve human well-being, health services have a significant environmental footprint that contributes to environmental threats to human health. As a result, the linear „make-use-dispose“ consumption model is being abandoned in favor of more circular and sustainable approaches. The sector has not only started to adopt low CO² technologies or to define strategies to reduce the consumption of anesthesia gases but has also started to adopt a life-cycle approach to plastic waste management, which aims to recover, reuse and recycle plastic products and packaging in the framework of the circular economy.
EXAMPLE 1:
HCWH (Healthcare without harm) is an initiative to support sustainable practices in the healthcare sector. NCWH comprises many hospitals, medical professionals, and more. Together they create a wide network. The main focus is on providing the global population with the best healthcare that does not damage the planet and ensures the population’s health. Among some of the goals is a transition to circular economy models or the reduction of harmful chemicals commonly found in some plastics.
EXAMPLE 2:
Approximately 8,150 babies are born at the University Clinical Hospital Virgen de la Arrixaca (UCHVA) annually – 50% of the region’s births. To reduce infants’ exposure to harmful chemicals leaching from plastic milk containers, as well as reduce the hospital’s environmental footprint and their use of plastic, the Maternity Unit at UCHVA is taking steps to use glass containers for storage and serving of milk. In addition, the Paediatric Environmental Health Speciality Unit (PEHSU) has worked to ensure that glass containers are used in their human milk bank.
Expert Statement Elisa Frenz:
I envision a future in which we have managed to make the healthcare organizations sustainable. And not only net zero emissions, which is optimistic in itself , but further still, as is the case in Finland, where they are pushing for negative emissions. We are aiming for planetary health in the health care system, by focusing on people, who can then in turn make good decisions for their lives. In that sense, we’re already making great progress.