Environmental sustainability is everyone's story.
Achieving energy and environmental sustainability is a priority for PHSA. As a health-care organization, we are mindful of the importance of developing a triple-bottom-line approach to sustainability—one that balances ecological, societal and economic imperatives, and recognizes the link between a healthy environment and a healthy population. As such, we recognize our duty to minimize our environmental impact through leadership and strategic partnerships, facility construction and operations.
The Energy and Environmental Sustainability team (EES) works closely with a range of departments across PHSA to reduce the impact of the health-care system on the environment, and to help improve the health of individuals and our communities.
Together, our purpose is to inspire and empower all we work with, to collaboratively enable systemic transformation, so that we can restore and regenerate the interdependent health of people, place and planet—now and for future generations.
In addition to our Environmental Sustainability Policy, collectively, we focus and report on the following areas in an effort to work towards environmental sustainability at PHSA:
Move towards a climate-resilient health system and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in facility design and operations.
Reduce our carbon footprint by increasing energy efficiency and reducing reliance on fossil fuels.
Develop plant-forward, local, culturally-relevant and equitable food service to advance food as medicine.
Collaboratively foster a culture of transformative leadership and innovation for environmental sustainability in health care.
Choose materials and products that contribute to human and environmental health while avoiding waste and unnecessary chemicals.
Increase access to and use of transportation modes that reduce negative environmental impacts and benefit human health and wellness.
Minimize water consumption to reduce demand on natural resources and impact on our living environments.
For more detailed information about what PHSA is doing to work towards environmental sustainability, please check out our 2020 PHSA Environmental Performance Accountability Report.
Coordinated by EES, GreenCare is a network that unites efforts within the BC health-care community to transform our health-care system toward environmentally sustainable and resilient care for healthy people, place and planet.
For more information and access to resources, stories and more, please visit the GreenCare website.
Questions?
If you have a question about environmental sustainability at PHSA, please email info@bcgreencare.ca.
