The Collaborative Centre will catalyze capacity across our three interdependent strategic priorities:
Many faculty, students, trainees, and health sector partners initiated the conversations and led the work that created the Collaborative Centre.
The Collaborative Centre responds to the strategic commitments of its four founding faculties, and to the University of Toronto’s Institutional Strategic Research Plan (2024-29).
- For the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the unit addresses the commitment of its 2019-2024 Academic Plan to respond to climate change and the ecological determinants of health, and to the strategic priorities of the affiliated Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, to address the impact of environmental change for health and healthcare.
- For the Temerty Faculty of Medicine, the unit responds to the imperative to embed planetary health and sustainable care within its educational and research agenda.
- For the Lawrence Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, the unit responds to the Strategic Academic Plan’s commitment to social justice and innovation in education and research.
- For the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, the unit responds to the imperative to “Support Sustainability in Health Care” as one of six core themes in its Academic Plan.
Before the Collaborative Centre
The Collaborative Centre is host to a substantial body of impact-focused work on sustainable care, developed under the leadership of the Collaborative Centre’s Founding Director through the prior, single faculty unit that she directed: The Centre for Sustainable Health Systems
History
Launched in September 2019, along with an inaugural Masterclass in Sustainable Health Care, the Centre for Sustainable Health Systems was based within the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto.
The Centre’s origins date to a 2016 faculty meeting that considered the health sector’s role in addressing the challenge of climate change. It benefited from the efforts of a departmental committee of students, staff, faculty, and health partners that worked to foster a shift toward environmental sustainability both within and beyond the department. Then, after connecting with the UK-based Centre for Sustainable Healthcare (CSH) and learning of their efforts to embed sustainability within quality improvement and to develop sustainable models of care, we were inspired to advance the CSH vision in the Canadian context. Thus, the Centre for Sustainable Health Systems was born.
The Centre worked to initiate and served as secretariat for the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) Sustainable Health System Community of Practice, uniting 14 academic hospitals and 4 health science faculties in pursuit of high quality, low carbon, and equitable care.
The Centre was awarded $6 million (CAD) over five years to lead a pan-Canadian initiative for climate action and awareness in healthcare, funded by Environment and Climate Change Canada: CASCADES. Responsibility for the resources that the Centre had developed to support practice change, including a snapshot series, events and professional development courses, were henceforth delivered – and further developed and expanded – by CASCADES.
Conversations were initiated in fall 2022 about the potential for a purpose-built cross-faculty unit on climate and sustainability in the health sector – to elevate awareness and engagement across disciplines, professions, and knowledge systems, to support cross-fertilization between research, education and practice and policy change, and to achieve impact at the speed and scale required.
The Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care was approved by the governing councils of the four founding faculties in October and came into existence on November 1st, absorbing the capacity and commitments of the Centre for Sustainable Health Systems together with an expanded academic mandate, an enriched community, and a broadened scope.
