title: Enhancing the sustainability and climate resiliency of health care facilities: a comparison of initiatives and toolkits.
abstract: Extreme weather events have revealed the vulnerability of health care facilities and the extent of devastation to the community when they fail. With climate change anticipated to increase extreme weather and its impacts worldwide-severe droughts, floods, heat waves, and related vector-borne diseases-health care officials need to understand and address the vulnerabilities of their health care systems and take action to improve resiliency in ways that also meet sustainability goals. Generally, the health sector is among a country's largest consumers of energy and a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions. Now it has the opportunity lead climate mitigation, while reducing energy, water, and other costs. This Special Report summarizes several initiatives and compares three toolkits for implementing sustainability and resiliency measures for health care facilities: the Canadian Health Care Facility Climate Change Resiliency Toolkit, the U.S. Sustainable and Climate Resilient Health Care Facilities Toolkit, and the PAHO SMART Hospitals Toolkit of the World Health Organization/Pan American Health Organization. These tools and the lessons learned can provide a critical starting point for any health system in the Americas.
authors.affiliation: National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, United States of America.
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Balbus
authors.affiliation: Health Canada, Climate Change and Health Office, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.affiliation: Health Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Meagan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Brettle
authors.affiliation: Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), Washington, DC, United States.
authors.forename: Shalini
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jagnarine-Azan
authors.affiliation: PAHO, Special Program of Sustainable Development and Health Equity, Washington, DC, United States.
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Soares
authors.affiliation: PAHO, Department on Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief, Washington, DC, United States.
authors.forename: Ciro
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ugarte
authors.affiliation: Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, Branchton, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Varangu
authors.affiliation: World Health Organization (WHO), Geneva, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Elena Villalobos
authors.initials: EV
authors.lastname: Prats
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002170:Canada; D057231:Climate Change; D004199:Disease Vectors; D055864:Droughts; D055874:Extreme Heat; D055868:Floods; D006268:Health Facilities; D006801:Humans; D014887:Weather