Given its mission and influence, health care can lead society to a low carbon, toxic free, sustainable future
In a blog post posted on the Sustainable Procurement in the Health Sector (SPHS) website, Gary Cohen - HCWH's President and Founder - presents the role of the health sector worldwide to help lead the way towards a low carbon, toxic-free future.
According to Cohen, "Health care can be a leading force for sustainability and environmental health around the world, both by reducing its own carbon footprint and by leveraging its economic clout to bend the arc of the world economy toward more environmentally sound practices. And given the size of the healthcare sector, which represents 10% of the global economy, that impact could be significant."
"We are pleased to be collaborating with UNDP on a project supported by the United Nations and the Skoll Foundation to develop sustainable procurement criteria for the UN’s purchase of more than $5 billion in healthcare products annually. By setting and validating these criteria, the UN, through its Sustainable Procurement in the Health Sector (SPHS) initiative, can not only develop green criteria for its own procurement, but can establish a framework that can potentially be adopted by ministries of health and health systems the world over."