A message from Dr. Caroline Stigant:
I am happy to provide an update of the many developments in the rapidly advancing world of Environmentally Sustainable Kidney Care (ESKC).
Provincially, our multidisciplinary Planetary Health Working Group has just released BC Renal’s Planetary Health Strategy (available here: http://www.bcrenal.ca/resource-gallery/Documents/Planetary_Health_Strategy.pdf), which will be formally ‘unveiled’ at our upcoming Earth Day Provincewide Rounds on May 2. Our collaboration with Dr. Andrea MacNeill/ Planetary Healthcare Lab and UBC Okanagan Engineering seeks to find ways to decarbonize kidney care in BC by 40% by 2030, in line with the CleanBC Roadmap and Canada’s Net Zero Emissions Accountability Act. This interim goal to net zero is a significant effort that will require every kidney care job to be a climate job. Please join Helen Chiu and I at PWR for an interesting discussion on this Strategy, and ways we can together reach this goal, while celebrating quality kidney care and caring for the environment.
Nationally, SNAP committee members are preparing a recorded lecture for rollout across all training programs, to expand awareness and practice of ESKC. This was inspired by the lecture created this year for our nephrology trainees’ academic half day – the first of its kind in Canada. A second major SNAP initiative, led by Dr. Shaifali Sandal of McGill, is the expansion of Canadian kidney care programs’ resiliency to extreme weather events or other disasters.
Internationally, the ISN’s GREEN-K (Global Environmental Evolution in Nephrology and Kidney Care) committee is developing a wide range of educational resources (link here: https://academy.theisn.org/products/isn-green-k-initiative-global-environmental-evolution-in-nephrology-and-kidney-care-curriculum#tab-product_tab_contents__3), and a global sustainable procurement strategy that seeks to unite purchasers of a new generation of sustainable kidney care products (pharmaceuticals, dialysis equipment, consumables) and services is underway. An upcoming KDIGO Controversies Conference on Green Dialysis will for the first time bring together (in person not just zoom!) our ESKC community, and recommendations will follow on what innovations to prioritize, including for procurement. A scoring matrix and procurement communities of practice to support vanguard site procurement exercises are being planned.
It has been so rewarding to see the network and this sectoral approach to decarbonization expand at micro / meso / macro levels. Each level informs the other, all while providing unique contributions. Widespread implementation of sustainable practices provides us all ongoing opportunities for us to live our values at work while we safeguard Earth’s natural systems and provide exemplary care. I look forward to working with many/all via upcoming planetary health engagement with BC Renal committees.