Sustainable health system procurement
Health systems have significant purchasing power. Procurement processes can leverage this power to influence vendors and shape markets for sustainable and resilient health sector products and services.
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CASCADES pan-Canadian Network
We’re working to bring procurement agencies and teams together from across the country to share knowledge and resources for sustainable procurement in healthcare.
Stay tuned for updates as this work develops.
Implementation resources on sustainable procurement
Reusables First Approach to Healthcare Playbook
Find an overview of reusable opportunities in healthcare, implementation resources, and suggested strategies to adopt reusables at care sites.
Reusables first webinar series
“Reusables first” is a sustainable approach to procurement that prioritizes the purchase of reusable products and devices over single-use disposables whenever possible and clinically safe to do so. This webinar series will explore themes from the Reusables First Approach to Healthcare playbook by highlighting opportunity areas, key challenges, and effective strategies to adopt reusables and reuse principles in Canadian healthcare settings. Join us to hear from healthcare professionals –from frontline clinicians to leaders and researchers– with direct experience adopting reusables in different care settings.
Reusables First: Prioritizing reusables in Canadian healthcare settings
“Reusables first” is a sustainable approach to procurement that prioritizes the purchase of reusable products and devices over single-use disposables whenever possible and clinically safe to do so.
Healthcare procurement has significant potential to mitigate healthcare’s impact on planetary health. By focusing on decarbonizing supply chains and adopting sustainable practices, the sector can drive meaningful progress toward environmental sustainability and climate mitigation.
Join us to discuss opportunities and strategies for adopting reusables. You’ll hear from healthcare professionals with direct experience adopting reusables and implementing a reusables first approach in their BC and Ontario healthcare settings.
Speakers:
- Colin Chan, Sustainable Clinical Services Lead, Vancouver Coastal Health
- Marianne Dawson, Sustainability Advisor, Provincial Health Services Authority
- Katherine Gregory, Clinical Nurse Educator, North York General Hospital
- Brandi Newby, Pharmacy Coordinator &
Clinical Pharmacy Specialist, Surrey Memorial Hospital
Reusables in Quebec healthcare: Between research and action
There is a growing movement in Quebec to adopt reusable products and devices as a strategic and impactful approach to advancing sustainability objectives. The transition from single-use disposable products to reusable alternatives offers multiple benefits, including the reduction of natural resource extraction and consumption, decreased waste generation and pollution, enhanced resilience within supply chains, and the potential for long-term cost savings.
Join us in conversation with Quebec-based researchers and healthcare professionals as we discuss the environmental and financial differences of reusables versus single-use products, barriers and facilitators to adopting reusables, and experiences from the front lines of making this switch in Quebec health facilities.
Speakers
- Simon Berthelot, specialist and researcher in emergency medicine at CHUL, part of the CHU de Québec – Université Laval and Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Université Laval
- Nathalie Clavel, Assistant Professor in Health Services Management at the School of Public Health, Université de Montréal, and a regular researcher at the CHUM Research Centre
- Adam Gélinas-Proulx, Coordinator – Housekeeping & Sanitation – Laundry Services at the CIUSSS de l’Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal and executive member of the CPHS
Collaborating with IPAC to advance sustainability and reusables
October 16, 2025 at 10 am PT | 1pm ET | 2pm AT
Adopting reusables is a high-impact strategy for advancing sustainability. Infection prevention and control professionals and teams can play an important role in such efforts and are key allies for many initiatives to promote sustainability and resource stewardship.
Join us on October 16 for a conversation with IPAC leaders and frontline clinicians who are working to build a culture of reuse while ensuring quality and patient safety standards are met.
We’ll hear about opportunities for IPAC teams and other healthcare professionals to work together as allies in planning and implementing initiatives to adopt reusables in Canadian healthcare settings.
This session of the Reusables First Webinar series is presented in partnership with IPAC Canada, who have recently published a position statement on Environmental Stewardship, Sustainability, and Planetary Health Related to IPAC.
Lessons learned from unsuccessful projects
November 13, 2025 at 10 am PT | 1pm ET | 2pm AT
Details coming soon!
This session of the Reusables First Webinar series is presented in partnership with the Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health and Sustainable Care.
More resources on sustainable procurement
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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.