The climate crisis is reshaping every aspect of our world, including health care. While health systems are designed to protect and improve lives, they also contribute significantly to environmental degradation through greenhouse gas emissions, waste and pollution, and unsustainable supply chains. How can we transform health care to operate within planetary limits while maintaining fairness, equity, and optimal patient outcomes?
Prof Sara Shaw and Dr Amy Booth of the Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences, explore these pressing issues in their upcoming book, working title: 'Environmentally Sustainable Health Care: What Is It and How Do We Get There?'
Bringing together cutting-edge research and real-world case studies, they unpack the environmental costs of health care, from pharmaceutical pollution to the global supply chain’s impact on environmental injustice. They also outline practical pathways for change, whether through policy, innovation, or shifts in clinical practice, to achieve sustainable health care.
This book is not just about diagnosing the problem, it’s about finding translatable solutions. From the role of technology to the challenge of opportunity costs in health care decision-making, the book takes a critical yet hopeful look at how health systems can evolve to serve both people and the planet.
The book is due to be published by Taylor and Francis in 2026, will serve as course material for the Sustainable Health Care module (part of the MSc in Translational Health Sciences programme), and is designed to equip students and healthcare staff more broadly to become active drivers of sustainable health systems.
Find out more about the Sustainable Health Care module – also available as a standalone short course, and about the Master’s in Translational Health Sciences.