Sustainable healthcare
Public Health and Policy
Definition. Sustainable healthcare delivers high-quality care while reducing environmental impact, especially carbon emissions and waste, and maintaining social and economic sustainability.
Explanation
A maturity model helps organisations assess and advance their sustainability practices (Sijm-Eeken et al., 2024). Primary care has a measurable carbon footprint with identifiable mitigation strategies (Walsh et al., 2024), and patients are open to including environmental sustainability in care decisions (Cohen et al., 2025).
Related concepts
Climate change and health Planetary health Low-value care Value-based healthcare
Read on The Health Topics
- Maturity Model for Sustainable Healthcare
- Greening Primary Healthcare: Footprint, Strategies, and Solutions
- Patients’ Attitudes Towards Sustainable Healthcare
References
Cohen, E. S., Kringos, D. S., Grandiek, F., Kouwenberg, L. H. J. A., Sperna Weiland, N. H., Richie, C., Hehenkamp, W. J. K., & Aarts, J. W. M. A. (2025). Patients’ attitudes towards integrating environmental sustainability into healthcare decision‐making: An interview study. Health Expectations, 28 (1), e170155.
Sijm-Eeken, M., Ossebaard, H. C., Čaluković, A., Temme, B., Peute, L. W., & Jaspers, M. W. (2024). Linking theory and practice to advance sustainable healthcare: the development of maturity model version 1.0. BMC Health Services Research, 24 (1), 1350. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-11749-8
Walsh, S. J., O’Leary, A., Bergin, C., Lee, S., Varley, Á., & Lynch, M. (2024). Primary healthcare’s carbon footprint and sustainable strategies to mitigate its contribution: a scoping review. BMC Health Services Research, 24, 1630. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-024-12068-8
Cite this entry: Kurutkan, M. N. (2026). Sustainable healthcare. In The Health Topics glossary. https://healthtopic.org/glossary/sustainable-healthcare/