What is Sustainability?

(Est. reading time 1.5 min; Rec.)

The United Nations defined sustainability as “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

Sustainability in healthcare refers to a system that integrates environmental stewardship, social equity and fiduciary responsibility to support healthy, equitable and resilient environments and communities over time. It is about understanding that our health and that of our environment are intrinsically linked, and acting in a way that supports both people and planet health. A sustainable healthcare system improves, maintains or restores health, while minimising 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.

In this course when we discuss the three defined Pillars of Sustainability also known as the triple bottom line.

Economic: Focuses on conserving natural resources that provide inputs for economic production, including both renewable and exhaustible resources.

Environmental: Emphasizes maintaining life support systems (such as the atmosphere or soil) necessary for economic production and human life.

Social: Addresses the human effects of economic systems, aiming to eradicate poverty, hunger, and combat inequality.

This are applied to ensure high quality care is available to all in the present but not at the sacrifice of future generations.

To achieve this will require a fundamental re-structure of the way we think about health. Globally we spend over 8 trillion euros /year (~ 10% of the GDP of most developed nations) on a healthcare industry which: -

Treats only those who are already sick.
Is wasteful of resources
Contributes to ecological breakdown in many ways, damaging the health
of the population in the process.

A truly sustainable health system would eliminate the negative environmental impact of what we do, whilst also building a stronger focus on health creation at a population level. After all, the most powerful means to minimise the environmental impact of healthcare activity is to do less of it eg prevent people needing to access health services due to poor health.

Key Learning points:

Sustainability is the ability of a thing or system to endure
We cannot have social or financial sustainability without a stable environment
Sustainability can be thought of in terms of environmental, economic or social factors known as the triple bottom line.
A sustainable healthcare system focuses on prevention and health creation at a population level