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Mitigation-Resilience-Equity diagram

Together our powerful network will transform the health sector — ensuring it can balance the immediate needs for mitigation, resilience, and equity, while serving as a leader in the broader shift to a just, low-carbon economy.

Climate change is a threat multiplier for all social and environmental factors that contribute to disease and widen inequality.

Health care is at the epicenter of pandemics, climate disasters, and other public health emergencies. These crises highlight the deeply rooted connection between health care, community health, equity, and resilience. These crises individually and collectively have a disproportionate impact on people of color and reveal significant health and socioeconomic disparities within our communities.

Definition: Resilience

Resilience is the ability of communities to thrive amidst acute and chronic climate, economic, and health disruptions within the ecosystems that sustain them.

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Climate-Resilient Health Systems and Communities graphic

Our definition includes a combination of climate adaptation and social resilience strategies that focus on: 

1. Health care facility resilience

2. Public infrastructure resilience

3. Community health resilience

Alongside mitigation efforts and proactive leadership, all of these dimensions are needed to fully address the current and future impacts of climate change in a holistic, integrated, and effective way. 

Our vision for the future

We see a future with healthy people living in equitable, resilient communities on a thriving planet. This is a future in which all communities are prepared for the shocks and stressors of the climate crisis, with uninterrupted access to health services during extreme weather events. 

We envision health systems building physical, social, and economic conditions to support community health and well-being, harnessing the enormous economic power and influence of the health care sector to move beyond emergency care toward healing the harm that exists today in the form of ecological degradation, health vulnerabilities, and economic disparities. 

To achieve this vision, hospitals must break down internal silos, while building and repairing trust with communities by acting with greater humility, inclusion, and true partner engagement

Featured initiatives

Climate resilience

CLIMATE AND HEALTH

Prepare for climate impacts while working with communities to advance resilience, health, and equity.

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Place-based partnerships

RESILIENCE

Facilitate deep, trusting partnerships with community-based organizations to build replicable models for collaborative action.

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Market transformation

SUSTAINABLE PROCUREMENT

Collaborate with manufacturers to drive product innovation and market transformation.

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Growing healthy food communities

HEALTHY FOOD

Uplift community health, wealth, and resilience through purchasing and investments.

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Leveraging the power of food procurement

HEALTHY FOOD

Invest in sustainable and resilient food economies, support producers, and ensure nutrition for all.

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Selected resources for resilience

Anchored by health care: Strategies for health systems

This guide presents a modeled approach to health care organizations’ role in building equitable relationships that power community health, wealth, and…

Climate resilience for health care and communities: Strategies and case studies

This paper provides a strategic framework for building climate-resilient health systems and communities, and explores how health care institutions can…

Partnering for climate resilience: A practical guide to community-based disaster planning for health care

This guide provides a new approach to disaster planning and climate preparedness built on a partnership between health systems and the communities…

Safe haven in the storm: Protecting lives and margins with climate-smart health care

This report analyzes billions of dollars in losses and resilience-related savings to demonstrate how preparing for extreme weather can make or break a…

Impact Purchasing Commitment 🡥

The Impact Purchasing Commitment (IPC) launched with the support of 12 health systems and was designed by the Healthcare Anchor Network in partnership…


Our other core 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…

Equity

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