The climate crisis is the biggest threat modern society has ever faced.
That’s why the Royal Pharmaceutical Society’s three national boards and Assembly have made a climate change declaration and are committing to collaborate with governments and other bodies across the world to tackle this crisis.
The healthcare sector accounts for 4.6% of global carbon emissions.
As health professionals, climate change will fundamentally impact our roles.
The climate crisis will lead to injuries and deaths resulting from extreme weather, increase the likelihood of water-borne illnesses and other infectious diseases, create greater prevalence of respiratory and cardiovascular disease, lead to millions of climate refugees, and have a catastrophic impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing.
We are now calling on the whole pharmacy profession to ensure that everyone is committed to sustainability. To accompany our declaration, we’re making a series of proactive commitments to influence change and hold ourselves accountable.
This includes working with our members and national boards to develop pharmacy’s role in decarbonisation, focusing on areas such as public health and prevention of disease, the medicines supply chain and the infrastructure in which pharmacy teams work.
We will work with governments, health services across Great Britain and the pharmaceutical industry to deliver on their sustainability strategies and advocate how pharmacy can contribute, shining a light on the work of RPS members who are leading the way on sustainability.
As well as this, we are already a zero to landfill organisation, championing recycling and eliminating single use plastics on our sites. We aim to convert to 100% renewable energy across our offices in Cardiff, Edinburgh and London and reduce our overall energy and water usage. Find out more about how we are reducing our environmental impact.
RPS President Professor Claire Anderson said: “The climate crisis will not just have an impact on the pharmacy profession, but your family, friends, and everyday life.
“The RPS declaration is leading the way for pharmacy and demonstrates our commitment to change.
“It’s more important than ever that we turn words into action and become more sustainable and this applies to everyone. As individual practitioners and collectively as a profession, we must identify where we can make changes in our practice to reduce carbon emissions.
“Join us by acting now, and change the direction we are going in.”
Read our declaration on climate change.
Photo credit Mclean/Shutterstock.