The World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted the climate and health work of two GGHH members from Latin America: the San Rafael de Pasto hospital, Colombia, and the Valdivia Health Service, Chile.
The stories featured by WHO showcase the projects and initiatives these two organizations have implemented to reduce their environmental footprint and create climate-smart sustainable health care.
The San Rafael de Pasto Hospital works on mental health and serves almost 23,000 patients per year. As part of their climate program, the hospital gradually:
- Shifted its lighting equipment to more sustainable, energy-efficient technologies.
- Incorporated the use of renewable energy for different services such as lightning and water heating, and built a solar-powered drying station for clothes and linens.
- Renewed or replaced fuel-based equipment to increase efficiency.
In 2014 the Valdivia Health Service, a public health network in Southern Chile, joined GGHH as a part of its institutional commitment to reduce its environmental impact. They hired environmental managers for all their facilities and started working on their Environmental Management Plan matching GGHH’s guidelines. After estimating the network’s climate footprint using Health Care Without Harm’s calculator for facilities, they identified several priority interventions to reduce it, including carrying out energy audits and switching the fuel source of their boilers to gas.
Both institutions have joined Race to Zero and pledged their commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050. In addition, they are each using the carbon footprint calculator tool developed by Health Care Without Harm, which was recently launched at the global level. Climate Impact Checkup is available for members of the GGHH network, to help them calculate their baseline emissions and identify priority areas for mitigation.