What is Planetary Health?

Planetary Health is the awareness that the health of the planet is inextricably intertwined with the health of the planet’s inhabitants – if the planet is not healthy, it is impossible for humans as a group to be healthy. Efforts to increase planetary health are in almost all cases synergistic with enhancing the health of individual humans. Planetary health affects and is affected by all areas of medicine, and is a growing concern among medical professionals.

Our Work

The Queen's PGME Planetary Health Subcommittee is dedicated to raising awareness and taking action on issues that impact learning and healthcare. Some recent examples are found below.

Curriculum Content

The Subcommmittee continues to add slides to the powerpoint library on a variety of topics which can be used in lectures. Click here to view the collection.

Also, download our Greener Program Guide for tips on how to make your program more environmentally friendly.

Education

As planetary health gains visibility as the biggest threat to health of our times, our programs are increasing their planetary health content in lectures, webinars and academic days. QIPS in particular, and resident QI projects have a strong focus on planetary health. 2024 was also the inaugural year of the Healthy People, Healthy Planet Speaker series, a series of 6 one-hour lectures on planetary health topics.

Opportunities

All residents are required as a part of residency to take part in Quality Improvement (QI) initiatives. There are many planetary health opportunities within this, including working with the Growing Sustainable Physicians program

Publications

Sustainable Health Care: A guidebook on how to incorporate gardens and greenspaces. Authors: Dr. Laura Kroeker, Mikayla Robinson, Maggie Markus, and Dr. Myles Sergeant.
Green Office Toolkit 2.0 - A collaborative project including input from Dr. Anthony Train, Nicole Nakatsu, and Dr. Laura Kroeker.

Research

Drs. Danielle Bourgeois-Lapiccirella, Chris Haley, and Jessica Burjorjee have published a poster investigating the useage and reducing the wastage of nitrous oxide at Kingston General Hospital. Click on this link to view their poster in greater detail and to learn more about this Quality Improvement initiative.

Resources

We regularly update our list of planetary health resourses and those below are only an introduction to what's available.

Please be sure to visit our complete list of planetary health resources.

Resource	Description
CASCADES specialty-specific sustainable playbooks (see playbooks in our resources section).	In-depth guides on sustainable practice for nephrology, radiology, internal medicine, lab medicine, ER, and more
CASCADES Introduction to sustainable health systems	Free foundational online course, 90min to complete
Growing Sustainable Physicians	Program designed to teach physicians about the climate crisis and impacts of food systems
Planetary health for clinical practice	One-pager on simple steps to reduce carbon emissions
TRASH-CAN.org	Research hub linking trainees and mentors on sustainable projects

Committees and Groups

There are many committees and groups within Queen's and the Kingston Health Sciences Centre with key interests in advancing planetary health. Click on the links below for a brief description of each.

PGME Planetary Health Committee

The Planetary Health (PH) Subcommittee is a Subcommittee of the Postgraduate Medical Education Committee ad Queen’s University and is accountable to the Associate Dean, Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME). It is responsible for the strategic implementation of a Planetary Health education curriculum. The Committee will provide expertise to support the Planetary Health Lead to develop PH framework and curriculum, and to work with internal and external invested partners to facilitate novel PH curricula and opportunities for Queen’s residents.

Terms of Reference

Questions? Contact Dr. Laura Kroeker, Chair

Physician Quality Committee & Utilization Committee

The Physician Quality Committee supports and enables medical quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, shares improvement learnings and fosters a collaborative culture of improvement across KHSC. It includes membership and representation from all Medical Departments at KHSC.

A subcommittee of the Physician Quality Committee, the Utilization Committee, was created to optimize resource utilization across clinical programs and includes interdisciplinary membership. It has a mandate of achieving Choosing Wisely Canada Hospital Designation. Together, the Physician Quality Committee and Utilization Committee are actively working towards quality improvement and utilization initiatives that optimize resource efficiency and have environmental co-benefits to improve climate sustainability at KHSC.

Physician Quality Committee - Chair - Dr. Geneviève Digby

Utilization Committee - Co-Chairs - Dr. Evan Wilson, Dr. Omar Islam

KHSC Green Team

Information coming soon.

Perioperative Green Initiative

The Perioperative Green Initiative Working Group is collection of perioperative and surgical physicians, nurses, environmental services personnel (including medical device reprocessing personnel and waste and recycling management personnel), as well as stakeholder administrative personnel, meeting monthly to bimonthly. It seeks to reduce the environmental impact of the perioperative environment at Kingston Health Sciences Centre (KHSC) including the same day admissions centre, operating rooms, post-anesthesia care unit, surgical wards, and labour and delivery wards by utilizing a quality improvement framework.

Contact - Dr. Noah Letofsky

QFHT Green Team

The QFHT Green Team oversees and implements green initiatives at the Queen's Family Health Team, the home clinic for the Department of Family Medicine.

Questions? Contact Nicole Nakatsu (nicole.nakatsu@queensu.ca) or Dr. Laura Kroeker (laura.kroeker@queensu.ca), Co-Chairs

Providence Care Green Team

Information coming soon.

Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group

Information coming soon.

Archived news

Did you know? Exam table paper is costly, wasteful, and doesn't serve patients - the paper doesn't protect against infection at all.

If all family physicians in Canada eliminated exam table paper in their offices, it would result in savings of approximately 95 940 km of paper, 121 680 trees, $C8 400 600 and 3054 T CO2 emissions, equivalent to driving around the world 360 times. Learn more here.
EARTH: Environmental Action by Residents and Trainees for Health. Click here to learn more!
On Monday, October 6, The Globe and Mail hosted Health and Climate Change, presented by the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) and Trottier Family Foundation. The event brought together care providers and consumers, community and sustainability leaders to share actions for healthier people and a healthier planet. Click here for the highlights.
Health Canada has just declared a tier 3 shortage of Ventolin MDI and nebs. Stockpiling individually should be strongly discouraged, as there are patients who need these medications and do not have appropriate alternatives. However, for many patients it may be appropriate to consider a switch, and there are three options that also have much lower carbon footprints. Visit www.inhalerguide.ca

Bricanyl (terbutaline) turbuhaler (enviro friendly option but must have enough inspiratory flow to trigger the device)

Ventolin diskus (not covered by ODB) option for those with private plans and NIHB coverage

Symbicort (budesonide/formoterol) covered by ODB with LU code 330 "For the treatment of asthma in patients who are using optimum anti-inflammatory treatment and are still experiencing breakthrough symptoms."
The WHO regularly makes publications on the theme of Climate Change and health. The latest is an overview of how to implement climate-aspirational healthcare facilities, and can be found Climate Change and health
Planetary Health Subcommittee member Dr. Henry Swoboda (Emergency Medicine) recently submitted an opinion piece entitled "Taking control of your health with the Canada Food Guide".
Dr. Meghan Davis had a recent submission to the official journal of the College of Family Physicians of Canada entitled "Who's ready for some hope?".

Did you know?

Hospitals and clinics are often cleaned with cleansing wipes. Many of these wipes are safe to handle without gloves - their active ingredient is Hydrogen Peroxide (which is still very effective at killing viruses, fungi and bacteria, including MRSA). Preempt Wipes, which are used at the Queen's Family Health clinic, is an example (also made in Canada!). Only some wipes contain agents that are recommended to only touch with gloves (example: CaviCide wipes).

Click here for free Planetary Health Content for your program's PGME Curriculum

Click here for free Planetary Health Resources and Education, organized by discipline

GOOS Paper Stations

End of June/start of July tends to be a 're-set' time so it's a perfect time to set up a GOOS paper station!

What is GOOS paper? Good On One Side. All the paper that doesn't have confidential information on it, that we don't need anymore. Instead of popping it directly in the recycling and then reaching for printer paper or a notepad when we need to make notes, consider starting a GOOS paper pile. See photo from 1WB for reference!

Tips for success:

Put your GOOS pile close to your 'fresh paper' pile. For most of us, this is next to the printer - so when we reach for printer paper, we see the GOOS pile first

Get everyone on board! A local 'culture' of conservation is very helpful. If you see someone reaching for fresh paper, direct them to the GOOS.

Of course, the ideal is to first (drastically?) reduce the amount of printing we are doing, and then to reuse paper where possible, and then finally to recycle (or compost).

Healthy People, Health Planet Speaker Series

On behalf of the “Healthy People, Healthy Planet” Working Group at Queen’s University School of Medicine, it is our great honour to invite you to join us for our annual (virtual) Speaker Series (starts Jan. 12, 2026) featuring world renowned experts in lifestyle medicine and planetary health. Registration is totally FREE, and will include internationally acclaimed speakers such as Dr. Robert Waldinger, Dr. Kim Williams, Drs. Dean and Ayesha Sherzai, and Dr. Courtney Howard of CAPE.

CME credits will be available. To join via Zoom, you must register (FREE) for each of the talks individually. Recordings will be made available for registrants. See link. All are welcome!!

Please feel free to share. https://healthsci.queensu.ca/opdes/faculty-development/programs/healthy-people-healthy-planet

Walk with a Doc!

This walking program is a fun and safe place to take a walk (at your own pace), learn health tips from local healthcare professionals, and meet new people. The events are FREE and all are welcome! Click here to view the poster in greater detail for more information.