Sustainable Health System Community of Practice

About the Community of Practice

The Sustainable Health System Community of Practice (CoP) was established in the fall of 2020 by the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) and the University of Toronto’s Council of Health Science (CHS) to collaboratively address the challenge of climate change in the health sector. In recognition of the fact that the very sector tasked with maintaining and improving health contributes significantly to environmental changes that threaten it, the CoP’s goal is to support a shift toward environmentally sustainable healthcare, which is defined as care that aims to “improve, maintain or restore health, while minimizing negative impacts on the environment and leveraging opportunities to restore and improve it, to the benefit of the health and well-being of current and future generations.” (WHO, 2017)

The Community of Practice is led by Executive Sponsors from the Toronto Academic Health Science Network CEO Committee and the Council of Health Sciences, and a Senior Leadership Table comprised of Toronto Academic Health Science Network CEO Committee and the Council of Health Sciences leaders with expertise in the delivery of care, capital and procurement, and the organization of services. During its first term, The Community of Practice engaged with staff, faculty, and trainees from across Toronto Academic Health Science Network CEO Committee and the Health Science Faculties at University of Toronto, many of whom were already playing important roles in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their work, supporting opportunities to scale up and extend these efforts. Collectively embracing sustainability as a healthcare community means that we worked together to provide evidence, ideas, leadership and advocacy to reduce and minimize greenhouse gas emissions through action, research and education, first at a local level, with the ambition to play a leadership role nationally and internationally.

The Terms of Reference for 2020-22 are available to view here.

Community of Practice First Term Commitments

Identify, spread, leverage and evaluate existing good practice strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions generated in the delivery of health care and the operation of health systems
Deliver and evaluate at least two annual educational efforts on sustainable healthcare and health systems for staff, faculty and trainees
Organize and support at least one annual event that brings together partners from across Toronto Academic Health Science Network CEO Committee and the University to clarify issues, review options and new research, and identify priority items for collaborative action
Apply to at least two funding opportunities annually to support implementation of collaborative action
Work towards broad uptake of the results of our efforts, provincially, nationally and internationally

Working Groups

The Community of Practice approved five ‘high impact’/‘low cost’ collaborative practice change projects around which working groups have been convened. Click on any of the working groups below to learn more:

Sustainable Inhaler Initiative

Supporting the switch to low-carbon inhalers

Equity in Climate Action Intiative

Ensuring commitment to advancing equitable outcomes both in the areas of climate mitigation and resilience

Sustainable Virtual Care Initiative

Determining how to assess and harness the environmental benefits of virtual care, learning, and work

ORGANIzational Readiness Initiative

Identifying opportunities to increase the visibility and impact of sustainability efforts.

Sustainable Operating Room Initiative

Reducing OR waste and replacing, where appropriate, environmentally harmful anesthetic gases with less damaging alternatives

Fall 2021 Sustainability Survey Results

Progress Reports

Press

Low-carbon health care: U of T, local hospitals launch Sustainable Health System Community of Practice (UofT News)

What’s New: Toronto health science leaders form ‘Community of Practice’ for high-quality, low-carbon care (DLSPH, UT)

Collaborative Initiative Looks to Reduce Health Care’s Carbon Footprint (Faculty of Dentistry, UT)

Executive Co-Sponsors

Adalsteinn (Steini) Brown, Dean, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, UT

Ronald Cohn, President & Chief Executive Officer of Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)

Senior Leadership Table

Dale Clement, VP Clinical, St Josephs, Unity Health

Danielle Toccalino, Emerging Leaders for Environmentally Sustainable Health Systems (ELESH)

Lisa Dolovich, Dean, Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, UT

Karli Farrow, President and CEO, Trillium Health Partners

Peter Goldthorpe, VP Transformation, SickKids

Brian Hodges, EVP Education & Chief Medical Officer, UHN

Linda Johnston, Dean, Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, UT

Robin McLeod, Professor, Department of Surgery, UT

Imara Rolston, Assistant Professor, DLSPH; Policy Development Officer, City of Toronto

Ron Saporta, Chief Operating Officer, UT

Kaveh Shojania, Vice-Chair, Quality & Innovation, Department of Medicine, UT

Christine Soong, Division Head, Hospital Medicine, Sinai Health

Oliver Tsai, Director of Information Technology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Kimberly Wintemute, Family Physician, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto

Rudy Dahdal, Vice President, Planning, Redevelopment and Clinical Support, North York General Hospital

Secretariat, Centre for Sustainable Health Systems (CSHS)

Fiona Miller, Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health; Director, CSHS

Geoffrey Anderson, Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health; Fellow, CSHS

Nicole Simms, Managing Director, CSHS

Helen Valkanas, Research Officer, CSHS