CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION
A neonatal intensive care room.
pandemic and its impacts. At the same time, the government has been preparing much-awaited social and healthcare reform, a gigantic effort entailing considerable challenges that resulted in the resignation of the former government in 2019. These two issues have left little room to focus on sustainability issues in the healthcare sector, at a national, or even a local, level.
Social and healthcare reform proposals The Finnish parliament accepted the government’s proposals for social and healthcare reform in June 2021, and 21 wellbeing services regions and rescue services planned to begin providing all public social and healthcare from January 2023. As a result, healthcare decision-makers and administrative personnel will be extremely busy in preparing the reorganisation and transfer of responsibilities and functions from municipalities to the new wellbeing areas.
A reception area for radiology patients.
Rising interest in climate change mitigation Is there indeed any room to properly consider climate change mitigation and adaptation in the healthcare sector? Well, it seems that climate change mitigation in public healthcare is in fact being led by other sectors of society. In recent months in Finland, in accordance with the Government Programme, sectoral low- carbon roadmaps have been prepared for 13 different sectors of society, including energy, the chemical and food industry, construction, logistics, transport, and commerce – but not for the healthcare sector.3 Fortunately, we have observed an
increasing demand for more sustainable solutions among healthcare personnel. The amount of waste created by the pandemic has increased interest in better waste management, safe ways to re-use single- use items, and a transition from single-use to reusable items. In January 2021, the Finnish Medical Association declared a
climate emergency, and pleaded with decision-makers to limit global warming, and to establish carbon neutrality by 2030.4
Interest in the circular economy Interest in the circular economy is growing – especially among young people, businesses, and in the academic world, and solutions are being investigated for new methods of waste processing to new materials. As contaminated hospital plastics are not welcome in mechanical processing of plastic waste, thermolysis and chemical processing are being developed instead. Healthcare systems should be able
to identify which types of waste can be separated and provided for reprocessing. Additional work must be undertaken both internally and externally to develop new separated waste streams, e.g. for different plastics; recognition of the product, collection with quality control, storage, and finding a recipient. With motivated staff, we expect to be able to accomplish this. In Finland, municipalities are responsible
for the funding of public healthcare. Since 2008, one in four have increased their climate actions, and sustainability programmes are gradually proliferating in public healthcare. Many hospitals and health centres are now being constructed using new technology that increases their energy efficiency, and geothermal and solar energy solutions have recently been introduced. There is growing interest in the use of
more sustainable construction materials such as wood, which is already used in multi-storey residential buildings, schools, and other public properties, supported by national funding.5
However, large hospitals
are not, as yet, seen as suitable buildings for wooden construction. In this regard, ‘greener technologies’ within the concrete industry would be welcome, since cement production is one of the most carbon- polluting industries.6
Plenty of natural light inside a hospital or other healthcare facility has multiple benefits, both for patients and staff.
28 Health Estate Journal February 2023
Fossil-free energy Healthcare providers can already buy fossil-free energy – because water, wind,
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