Other Initiatives
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Identifying and supporting interventions in primary care that contribute to climate mitigation and climate resilience. Click here to learn more.
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Reducing resource use and waste in the OR and reducing the use of environmentally harmful anesthetic gases. Click here to learn more.
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Identifying opportunities to increase the visibility and impact of sustainability efforts. Click here to learn more.
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Determining how to assess and harness the environmental benefits of virtual care, learning, and work. Click here to learn more.
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Ensuring commitment to advancing equitable outcomes both in the areas of climate mitigation and resilience. Click here to learn more.
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Identifying opportunities to leverage healthcare purchasing for sustainability. Click here to learn more
About the Community of Practice City & Healthcare Climate Action Initiative
Strengthening healthcare’s contribution to city-led climate action: The potential of partnerships
In Canada and around the world, cities are acknowledged as critical actors in efforts to transition to a climate resilient and low carbon world. On the face of it, healthcare should have an essential role in urban climate action: it has a concentrated presence in urban environments, is a major carbon emitter, and is a vital participant in community climate adaptation. Thus far, inclusion of healthcare as a sector in city climate action plans has been limited, presenting an opportunity for greater engagement and alignment between cities and healthcare to propel ambitious climate action.
We are working to develop city-healthcare partnerships to identify and explore specific opportunities for the healthcare sector to support city-led climate action. We want to start locally with two key cities, Toronto and Mississauga, and the coterminous climate-engaged healthcare network, the Sustainable Health System Community of Practice, supported by a network of regional, provincial, federal and NGO authorities and experts.
For cities, such a partnership has the potential to leverage the efforts of important urban-dwelling industries and the associated social networks in achieving municipal goals. For healthcare, such a partnership has the potential to accelerate action on healthcare’s place-based climate accountabilities – climate resilient and low carbon healthcare infrastructure; and climate resilient, low carbon, equitable systems of integrated health & community care.
To get started, we are applying for a Partnership Development Grant from one of the federal research funding agencies. If funded, we will be well placed to support the co-creation of knowledge and understanding across sectors, with an emphasis on joint problem solving and partnership in knowledge mobilization, in the tradition of transdisciplinary co-production.
Our partners possess enormous expertise and experience across the three thematic areas that have been prioritized for joint working:
Built Environment: For more climate resilient and low carbon healthcare infrastructure
Urban Futures: For the resilient and equitable cities and health systems of the future
Policy & Governance: For place-based climate and health policy
The partnership aims to develop practical guidance on specific opportunities for collaborative climate action across these themes.
Partnership provides the opportunity to:
Collate evidence on exemplary cases (e.g., net zero hospital operations; healthcare-led urban climate resilience initiatives), leveraging partner knowledge and networks
Convene partners through a series of events (engaging additional academic- and practice-based experts, as appropriate)
Develop needed resources
Results due in March 2023 - Stay tuned
If you’d like to share any ideas, questions, or resources, please email cshs@utoronto.ca.