Sustainable pharmacy and prescribing
Key actions in sustainable pharmacy and prescribing can minimize the environmental harms of medications throughout their lifecycle and address increased medication-related risks due to climate change.
Upcoming training and events
Implementation resources for sustainable pharmacy and prescribing practices
Weaving Indigenous perspectives into pharmacy practice to strengthen environmental leadership, stewardship & sustainability
Background information, resources, and considerations for integrating vital Indigenous-led perspectives, values, and wisdom into the guidance for climate mitigation, adaptation, and resilience of pharmacy practice.
Integrating Environmental Sustainability into Hospital Pharmacies
A step-by-step guide for Canadian healthcare providers and administrators working in pharmacies of bed-based healthcare settings.
Medication Optimization for Sustainability in Inpatient Care
A step-by-step guide to addressing the environmental impacts of polypharmacy through medication optimization in inpatient care.
Climate Resilient, Low Carbon Sustainable Pharmacy Playbook
A step-by-step guide for pharmacy professionals.
Climate Conscious Inhaler Practices in Inpatient Care
A step-by-step guide to more sustainable inhalers in inpatient care
Clinical Order Set Redesign
Prioritizing Inhaler Wardstock
Tamper Sealing the Inhaler Cap
Low-Volume versus High-Volume HFA Inhaler Procurement
Hospital Formulary
Multidose Medication Discharge Policy
Inpatient provider-specific information
- Inpatient Pharmacists poster
- Inpatient Pharmacy Technicians poster
- Nurses poster
- Respiratory Therapists poster
- Physician and Trainee infographic
- Trainee video
Outpatient provider-specific information
Patient information
Climate Conscious Inhaler Prescribing in Outpatient Care
A step-by-step guide to more sustainable inhalers in primary care
An interactive web tool including province-specific information on coverage, cost, and indication.
Pharmacy, Prescribing and Climate Action webinar series
CASCADES’ Pharmacy, Prescribing and Climate Action webinar series is designed to address the increasing challenges the pharmacy profession is facing and explore opportunities for change. It is organized in partnership with the Centre for Practice Excellence at the University of Toronto Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, Dalhousie University’s College of Pharmacy in the Faculty of Health, the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia and other university partners.
A one-hour session on the pathways through which pharmaceuticals enter the environment, focusing on the implications for patient health. We discuss how residues from medications can affect ecosystems and the potential risks to human health, particularly in vulnerable populations. We also explore Canadian programs and regulations for the management of pharmaceutical waste.
Host: Ivy Lam, CASCADES
Speakers: Gigi Wong – Pharmacist, Quality, Lower Mainland Pharmacy Services, Fraser Health; Allen Bridge – Chair, Health Care Waste Management Community of Practice.
How can we make pharmacy practice more sustainable in Quebec? This one-hour webinar will explore different approaches to institutional pharmacy, community pharmacy and bioethics. Our speakers will share concrete examples, key issues and courses of action for integrating more sustainable practices into your everyday professional life.
Available with English subtitles
Host: Marc-André Mailhot, Maillon Vert
Speakers: Geneviève Ouellet - Pharmacist, CHU Sainte-Justine; Geneviève Charbonneau - Owner-pharmacist, Saint-Joseph-du-Lac & Alternate President, Association québécoise des pharmaciens propriétaires; Valentina De Maack - Doctoral student in bioethics
Are you looking for ideas, resources, and tools to help guide your hospital pharmacy sustainability journey? Join us for a one-hour session to learn about what initiatives you can implement in your hospital pharmacy operations to help reduce healthcare’s impact on the environment as we launch CASCADES’ Integrating Environmental Sustainability into Hospital Pharmacy Playbook, created in partnership with the Canadian Society of Healthcare-Systems Pharmacy (CSHP).
Speakers: Rita Dhami - Chief Pharmacy Officer, Canadian Society of Healthcare-Systems Pharmacy; Kiet-Nghi Cao – Pharmacist, Professional Practice Specialist, Canadian Society of Healthcare-Systems Pharmacy; Ivy Lam – Pharmacy Innovation Lead, CASCADES
Join Métis pharmacist Amy Lamb, Executive Director of the Indigenous Pharmacy Professionals of Canada, as she shares her experiences supporting pharmacy services to Indigenous communities as a front-line pharmacy professional and systems advocate. This webinar will focus on the experiences of community pharmacies building sustainable distribution to rural and remote communities and navigating health access through climate emergencies. The presentation will share the stories and experiences of pharmacy professionals and Indigenous community members navigating pharmacy and other health access. The presentation will also highlight the importance of the land in the holistic healing of Indigenous communities as a key factor in structural determinants of health and the impact of environmental racism.
Join CASCADES for a one-hour webinar to explore:
- How pharmacies can expand social prescribing’s reach, especially for underserved populations
- Insights from the Canadian Institute of Social Prescribing (CISP) and Kingston Community Health Centres (KCHC)
- Actionable strategies to leverage pharmacies as health equity engines
Our expert panel includes:
- Shereen Zahid – Communications and Knowledge Mobilization Specialist at CISP
- Wendy Vuyk – Director of Community Health at KCHC
- Tarek Hussein – Clinical Consultant Pharmacist, Chief Development Officer at ISPPA, and Director of Content at CAPhE
More resources on sustainable pharmacy and prescribing
Playlist
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Sustainable pharmacy and prescribing projects in development
Weaving Indigenous Perspectives into Pharmacy Practice to Strengthen Environmental Leadership, Stewardship and Sustainability
This playbook is being developed in partnership with CASCADES Canada, the Canadian Association of Pharmacy for the Environment (CAPhE), and led by the Indigenous Pharmacy Professionals of Canada (IPPC). The playbook will empower the perspectives of Indigenous pharmacy professionals and communities by providing background information, resources, and considerations to guide climate and environmentally sustainable adaptation and mitigation strategies, and strategic regional partnerships with Indigenous communities by pharmacy professionals and the pharmacy sector. The inequitable harms of climate change and resource extraction on Indigenous communities, Indigenous-led perspectives and values on the benefits of land-based traditional lifestyles and healing, strategies for pharmacy professionals and the pharmacy sector to support Indigenous-led adaptation and mitigation strategies, and climate-friendly recommendations to address distribution to remote and rural Indigenous communities will be highlighted.
Project lead: Amy Lamb, Pharmacist, Executive Director, Indigenous Pharmacy Professionals of Canada
Sustainable asthma care in the pediatric emergency department
This project will adapt sustainable inhaler prescribing principles and practices for the pediatric emergency department. The project is based on the four principles of sustainable practice, focusing on educating and encouraging use of the lowest impact MDIs for younger patients and increasing pediatric providers’ comfort in considering dry powder inhalers when appropriate. The project aims to develop a tool for rapid assessment of readiness to use a DPI that can be easily applied in the ED setting.
PI: Katie Gardner, Physician (Pediatric Emergency Medicine), IWK Health
We want to hear from you
Materials created by CASCADES are shared under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International Public License (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0).
While it is not a requirement under the license, we would be grateful if you would let us know where and how you use, share or adapt our materials.
Other action areas
Care pathways
Key actions can minimize the environmental harms of medications throughout their lifecycle and address increased medication-related risks due to climate change.
Many opportunities exist to address the resource intensity of perioperative care while ensuring and promoting high quality care.
Comprehensive person-centered primary and community care can support health and wellbeing and reduce the need for more resource intensive services.
Practitioners across specialties can take meaningful steps to reduce the environmental impacts of their practice and safeguard patient and population health.
Health services can promote health, including by delivering healthy food, effective chronic disease management, and climate-adapted clinical care.
System enablers
Sustainability is intrinsically linked with both quality care and patient safety and can be embedded within these efforts.
Leadership and good governance are needed to develop and deliver effective climate and sustainability strategy.
The shift to climate resilient and sustainable health systems requires accurate assessment of healthcare’s environmental impacts.
Health systems can leverage their purchasing power to influence vendors and shape markets for sustainable and resilient health sector products and services.
Healthy food, digital innovation and effective waste management are among the key enablers of low-carbon, sustainable and climate-resilient health systems.
CASCADES pan-Canadian networks
We are working with quality improvement teams and professional associations to share knowledge and resources for sustainable inhaler practices.
Join our Community of Practice
The Sustainable Inhalers Community of Practice meets on a monthly basis and is open to all healthcare workers looking to make an impact in this clinical area. Participants are encouraged to attend on a regular basis, but are welcome to drop in based on their schedules. During these meetings, participants:
- Share published updates
- Share updates on their own inhalers projects
- Share ideas and troubleshoot challenges
- Build their network of sustainability champions.
The Inhalers CoP is Chaired by Dr. Valeria Stoynova.
To join the discussion, contact Ivy Lam.
This work is being led by a clinical champion:
Chair: Valeria Stoynova, Clinical associate professor, Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, and general internist, Vancouver Island Health Authority, Victoria, British Columbia.
Dr. Stoynova is available to discuss project ideas. Please contact Ivy for availability.
Upcoming training and events