US & Canada

Health Care Without Harm seeks to transform health care worldwide so that it reduces its environmental impact, becomes a community anchor for sustainability, and a leader in the global movement for environmental health and justice.

News

Bridging health & climate: Our highlights from Climate Week NYC

Our contingent played an important role convening stakeholders to discuss health care’s role in accelerating climate action during Climate Week.

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Climate Week 2024 session featuring: (left to right) Glyn Richards (Bupa), Gary Cohen (Health Care Without Harm), and Rong Yi (Milliman)

An urgent call to bring an affordable, climate-friendly inhaler to the US

Climate change worsens health outcomes for millions of asthma patients. A doctor asks why an effective climate-friendly inhaler is out of reach.

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Woman uses inhaler

Podcast pick: Doctors unpack the health care plastic crisis

Our experts guide listeners through the history, current usage, and future innovations in under 40 minutes

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Doctors Ted Schettler and Emily Sbiroli

Are you ready to join our champions?

Culinary professionals across the country are taking their menus to new levels in the Health Care Culinary Contest from Oct. 1 to Nov. 30.

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6 years of winning Health Care Culinary Contest chefs

The power of procurement: Health care's opportunity to make supply chains more sustainable

Health care's significant purchasing power can catalyze economy-wide progress toward sustainable, equitable, and resilient supply chains.

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Two people shake hands, a physician and person dressed in business attire while other people watch intrigued

A plastic predicament: Rethinking health care’s environmental & health impacts

Insights from Dr. Hilary Ong, assistant professor of pediatric emergency medicine, University of California San Francisco.

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Syringes. Photo credit (alexroma/Pixabay)

Our objectives

Mitigation

Transform the health sector to mitigate the climate crisis and its impacts on human health and accelerate the broader transition to a clean energy economy.

Resilience

Ensure health systems are resilient to climate impacts and actively supporting community climate resilience as anchor institutions.

Equity

Lead the health sector in reducing social disparities intersecting with climate mitigation and resilience, and amplify the voices of the most impacted communities.


Our strategies

Lead advocacy and shape critical policy

We leverage demonstrated successes and compelling campaigns to push for public policy changes and then use these changes to accelerate tangible impact on the ground.

Expand and mobilize our powerful global network

We strengthen our network's role as advocates for climate-smart health care to build climate mitigation and resilience into their operations and throughout the communities they serve.

Transform supply chains and procurement practices

We mitigate the health care sector's adverse impact on climate, environment, and health by transforming procurement practices and supply chains and advancing a circular economy.

Deepen place-based partnerships between health care and communities

We will facilitate partnerships among community-based organizations and health systems to build replicable models for collaborative action that advances climate mitigation, resilience, and equity.