Sustainable health: So new projects save our future!

The discussion about sustainability and climate protection is becoming increasingly important, especially in healthcare. According to a report by The reporter it is essential that the sector takes action to reduce the air conditioning load, which is created, among other things, by indexed disposable products. In order to promote progress in healthcare, the Barmer, the “Healthy Earth - Healthy People” foundation from Dr. Eckart von Hirschhausen and the German Sustainability Prize Foundation initiated the "German Sustainability Prize Health".

This price rewardes projects that help promote a healthy future and enable everyday improvements. On November 29, the winners were awarded in three categories:

award winners of the German Sustainability Award Health

• strengthen health: crisischat.de was founded in May 2020 and offers young people under 25 years of help. Over 350 psychologically trained crisis consultants have already carried out 130,000 consultations.
Designing
• supply: The AOK Baden-Württemberg and the IWW Rheinisch-Westfälisches Institut für Water Research carried out a study on sustainable antibiotic care in order to set environmentally friendly manufacturing incentives.
Protect
• Environment: The project "Nursing climate -friendly" workers' welfare (AWO) has set itself the goal of becoming climate -neutral by 2040. It contains strategies for energy efficiency in care facilities.

However, the health sector faces challenges in relation to its environmental impact. As in another post by DGQ , the healthcare system causes 4.4% of the global net emissions, which causes a lot of 2 gigatons CO2-equivalent Year. The sector is also responsible for 5% of the total raw material consumption in Germany, with medical products and their supply chains make up for 71% of the emissions in healthcare.

In order to reduce climate impact, climate protection managers are increasingly being sought, and the need to develop a national strategy for climate -friendly health care by 2030 is emphasized. The Federal Medical Association has already identified ten fields of action, including energy consumption, waste management and the purchase of products. Nevertheless, all measures have to be careful not to endanger the medical standards.