As a health-care organization, we are mindful of the link between a healthy environment and a healthy population, and the important role we can play in both reducing our collective environmental footprint and ensuring our ability to respond to current and future environmental threats.
- Build relationships and leverage the programs, policies and resources already developed provincially, nationally and internationally.
- Increase awareness across the network of available resources and tools.
- Support educational opportunities and knowledge translation.
- Work towards the integration of green nephrology champions and strategies across the network.
- Seek opportunities to integrate green strategies into provincial contract procurement and management.
- Optimize renal care strategies that promote environmental sustainability (early identification of disease/preventing disease progression, virtual care, pharmaceutical approaches etc).
Some of the green initiatives we’ve supported to date, including:
BC Renal is collaborating with the UBC Planetary Healthcare Lab to conduct ‘life cycle assessments’ (LCAs) of kidney therapies, including pre-dialysis, dialysis, transplantation, and conservative care. LCAs systematically quantify environmental impacts throughout the entire life cycle of products and services. This foundational data will support future decision-making and policy development that incorporates environmental stewardship into kidney care. See: Comparative Lifecycle Assessment of Dialysis & Kidney Transplantation
Members of the BC Renal network are active participants of the Sustainable Nephrology Action Planning (SNAP) committee, a Canadian-wide group of providers dedicated to aligning kidney care with planetary health principles, and were involved in a recent publication titled, Redesigning Kidney Care for the Anthropocene: A New Framework for Planetary Health in Nephrology.
BC Renal is a member of the Green Care Network, founded by the Energy and Environmental Sustainability team. Green Care unites efforts across the BC healthcare community to transform our healthcare system toward environmentally sustainable and resilient care for healthy people, places, and the planet. Get involved and learn more about BC Green Care.
