E2A: Planetary Health Foundations

Let’s Level Up!

Addressing climate change through empowered community care practices.

Bottom Line

Welcome to the Planetary Health Foundations campaign. To get you started with the Earth to Action project, we recommend you watch the Planetary Health Foundations vodcast below and review the “Planetary Health and You” poster, which can be displayed in your clinic.
These resources are designed to strengthen your foundational knowledge of Planetary Health and support climate-conscious patient care.

Educational Tools and Posters for You and Your Clinic

The Planetary Health Foundations vodcast “Let’s Level Up” was developed as an introductory resource for individuals who are new to Planetary Health. It explores key Planetary Health concepts, the ways environmental changes are impacting human health, and how healthcare systems themselves affect the environment.

Designed as a practical primer course, the vodcast can easily be listened to while exercising, commuting, or even making your breakfast. The speed can be adjusted in the bottom right corner of the video to suit your preference.

Download this poster “Planetary Health and You” to place in waiting rooms, examining rooms and teaming rooms

Download this poster to place in waiting rooms, examining rooms and teaming rooms to help us recruit study participants.

Continue Exploring Planetary Health in Practice

Looking to take the next step in your clinic? The following topics build on the concepts introduced in Planetary Health Foundations and are explored in greater detail on their own dedicated webpages:

Green Teams & Greening Your Clinic

Learn practical strategies for incorporating sustainability into clinic operations, including guidance from our Greening Your Clinic Playbook informed by experiences at the Central Family Medicine and South Health Campus Teaching Clinics.

Sustainable Quality Improvement (SUSQI) & Carbon Counting

Explore how sustainability can be incorporated into quality improvement and learn the basics of measuring environmental impacts in healthcare.

SUSQI : Sustainable Healthcare and Sustainability in QI (Coming Soon)

SusQI: Primer for Carbon Footprinting in Healthcare (Coming Soon)

Remember that much of the work you do during the Earth to Action project can be counted for continuing medical education credits with one of the colleges and we have designed the metered-dose inhaler campaign so that it can be used for your College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta mandated PPIP (Physician Practice Improvement Program) work. Specifically, the practice-driven quality improvement (QI) activity.

Deeper Dive:

Below are additional resources that address improving clinic sustainability and clinical care for individuals that want to take a deeper dive into this topic. The campaigns of the Earth to Action Project will address a number of elements in the tools below.

For your clinic

Consider the following for information and links related to clinical care:

From one of our E2A team members, Low-Carbon Fruit Tree for Primary Care, from their abstract: “Primary care practitioners are optimally positioned to reduce the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions produced by the healthcare system, which pose great risk to the health of people and the environment. This narrative review discusses 19 initiatives that can be implemented into primary care practices to reduce GHG emissions and financial costs through decreasing highly intensive emergency room visits and hospitalizations. This article also summarizes the time it may take for primary care practitioners to embed each of these initiatives into their care delivery. Lastly, this article demonstrates how best practice initiatives in primary care may show a higher GHG reduction than commonly conducted initiatives aimed at reducing GHGs. ²
The CASCADES Primary Care Toolkit, “Highlighting ways practitioners can integrate sustainability into their clinical work in primary care settings.” It can be found here: https://cascadescanada.ca/resources/sustainable-primary-care-toolkit/ ³
The Green impact for Health toolkit is an organisation in the UK. It is a great example of how GP clinics can make a difference. We post it here simply to let you know that we are not alone and we have some great examples we can follow. You must be a UK practice to get set up and log in but if you send them an email they will let you into the site to look around, https://toolkit.sos-uk.org/greenimpact/giforhealth/⁴
Lastly, My Green Doctor, was established in 1995 by Dr. Todd Sack, a hepatologist in the US. He has recently seen great uptake and we admire him for starting this work before any of us were even thinking about it. Bravo Dr. Sack!!! His work can be found at https://mygreendoctor.org.

For you as an individual

Consider these evidence-based recommendations: The Earth to Action Project focuses on healthcare provision. This campaign also touches on individual actions that can be taken at home. Great resources can be found at the websites of these organisations:

The City of Calgary, visit to find initiatives and resources focused on climate action, waste reduction, water conservation, and protecting natural areas to support a sustainable and resilient city.
The United Nations, think globally as what we do impacts others throughout the world, at this site you will find 10 every day actions people can take to combat climate change.
And finally, The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), with more ‘actions’ and in depth information on plant-based diets. Offers practical tips to lower your carbon footprint, such as eating sustainably, traveling less by car or plane, conserving energy, and supporting climate friendly policies and businesses.

In addition, for a straight-forward, what to do now list, the Alberta Health Professionals for the Environment, recommend:

Where possible reduce travel and use more virtual communications.
When traveling, consider transportation that uses no or less fossil fuels (walk, bicycle, public transportation, carpooling). This change can increase your physical activity and fitness and hence health.
Consider local vacations. Explore and support local businesses and explore nature and attractions in your area.
Use less heating in winter, and less cooling in summer (i.e., decrease your ambient temperature by 1 degree in the winter and increase by 1 degree in the summer). This change will also help your body acclimatize better to the outdoor temperature.
Use LED lighting.
Turn off devices not in use and unplug them when fully charged.
Take advantage of government programs to make your home more energy efficient.
Consider investing in green energy such as solar panels on your home and/or a heat pump.
Reduce water use (consider reducing the frequency of washing clothes, use shorter washing cycles, use the dishwasher only when full, have showers not baths, use water saving shower heads).
Buy local products when you can. Rather than buying new products consider repairing and reusing, repurposing. Recycle old products where possible.
When buying new products consider buying electric products and if buying products that use fossil fuels look for products that are highly energy efficient. Indoor gas and oil burning appliances produce toxic greenhouse gasses that that are hazardous to your health.

References

¹ Wicklum S, et al. Clinical tools for greening care: a scoping review. CASCADES; 2023. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://cascadescanada.ca ↩

² Centre for Sustainable Healthcare. The low carbon fruit tree for primary care. Centre for Sustainable Healthcare; 2020. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://sustainablehealthcare.org.uk ↩

³ CASCADES. Primary care toolkit for greening practice. CASCADES; 2023. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://cascadescanada.ca ↩

⁴ Royal College of General Practitioners. Green Impact for Health toolkit. Royal College of General Practitioners; 2023. Accessed February 16, 2026. https://www.rcgp.org.uk ↩