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The health system plays a notable role in the society with impacts on both public health and the health of individuals. Green Healthcare implies practices that are environment friendly within the healthcare sector with the focus of reducing ecological footprint. These practices can include sustainable management of waste, use of engery efficient facilities and adoption of eco-friendly medical technologies. The adoption of these practices enhances the contribution of health systems to improve health outcomes and a healthier planet.

The health sector, whose mission is protecting and promoting health, is a major global contributor to the climate crisis. While the global health care’s climate footprint is equivalent to 4.4% of global net emissions it also takes responsibility for high consumption of natural resources, waste production and pollution e.g. pharmaceutical pollution, antibiotic resistance and others.

Besides, climate and environmental related challenges affect not only individual or population health, but force health systems to respond to these challenges while experiencing immense and immediate impact on all functions of a health system. Therefore, strengthening health system resilience and reducing the environmental footprint of the sector are critical steps for health sector transformation.

The category provides materials on the climate and environmental implications for health systems, the health care’s ecological footprint and resilient, environmentally smart health care systems.

Learning objectives:

• Learners will be able to analyze the environmental impact of the planetary crisis on health systems and describe the environmental footprint of the healthcare sector.

• Learners will be able to identify transformative action for mitigation and adaptation within the health care sector.