The St. Joseph’s Health Centre community garden. Photo credit: Yuri Markarov

The Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) has released its first Climate & Sustainability Report1, which highlights the efforts of 13 academic hospitals affiliated with the University of Toronto to prioritize sustainability and climate action, as assessed by a recently-developed Sustainability Balanced Scorecard.

TAHSN is one of the largest academic health science networks in North America, with more than 92,000 staff and serving more than 8 million patients each year2. With size, scale and breadth, TAHSN seeks to demonstrate local impact and global leadership in climate resilience, and environmental stewardship.

“We expect that this scorecard will be a catalyst to spur action for an environmental crisis that is playing out every day in headlines around the world,” says Heather McPherson, TAHSN chair and president & CEO, Women’s College Hospital. “TAHSN and our member hospitals are taking a hard look at ourselves and pushing ourselves to do more.”  

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Inaugural report card

The report is the first of its kind for TAHSN with 13 hospitals measuring themselves against four perspectives, each with their own focus:

  • Leading – organizational capacity, leadership and governance
  • Caring – appropriate care and supply stewardship
  • Building – infrastructure, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and waste
  • Shaping – procurement and resilience to climate shocks and stresses

Scores were collected in September 2024. Each perspective identifies two objectives for a total of eight. Each objective incorporates a series of criteria to assess achievement. Organizations were scored on a green (achieved), yellow (partially achieved) and red (not achieved) scale.

The average score of participating hospitals was three green, three yellow and two red. No organization received the theoretical best score of eight.

Unity Health Toronto scores above average

Unity Health Toronto’s performance in TAHSN’s inaugural Sustainability Balanced Scorecard reflects a strong foundation in in key focus areas, with green scores in areas of organizational capacity, products and supplies, greenhouse gas emissions, and resilient institution.

Sharon Au, Sustainability Project Manager, says these early successes speak to the dedication of Unity Health’s teams across all departments and sites.

“From environmental services and energy and sustainability to mission and values and supply chain, we are working collaboratively to embed climate resilience and environmental stewardship across our sites,” says Au.

Unity Health is focused on building internal awareness and capacity, and supporting staff engagement to make sustainability part of everyday workflow. Tools and programs, like the Sustainable Events Checklist, which supports staff in prioritizing sustainability when preparing for and holding events across the network, are driving these goals forward.

The network is making progress in areas like leadership and governance, appropriate care, and waste, where yellow scores reflect continued opportunity for growth and development.

Sustainability goals are embedded in strategic and action plans across the network, and are being reported to leadership regularly. Governance structures, like board-level reporting, are still in development, and several initiatives are underway to improve care appropriateness, including plant-forward and person-centred menus in cafeterias to create healthy and sustainable food options for patients, visitors and staff. 

Procurement was identified as an area to better integrate sustainability, in alignment with trends across TAHSN organizations. Many initiatives are in progress, including integrating sustainability into leadership portfolios, standardizing the language for requests to sources good and services, and sustainable procurement commitments, positioning Unity Health for future growth.

Unity Health remains committed to driving meaningful change through a systems-wide approach guided by its 2024-29 Sustainability Plan, which outlines strategic priorities to reduce environmental impact, strengthen resiliency, and embed sustainability into the organization’s culture and operations.

The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard was developed under the leadership of the TAHSN Sustainable Health System Community of Practice (CoP). The CoP was established in 2020 by the Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) and the University of Toronto’s Council of Health Sciences (CHS) to collaboratively address the challenge of climate change in the health sector.

The Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care is a multi-faculty academic unit at the University of Toronto, which serves as secretariat for the community of practice. Brittany Maguire, the managing director, and Fiona Miller, the director, led the development of the scorecard and report and have facilitated the CoP on various sustainability initiatives through working groups and pilot initiatives.

This is the second version of the scorecard and the first to be made publicly available. Another assessment is planned for 2025, to continue to monitor and drive performance, celebrate achievements, and share practices and learnings across and beyond the network.

References

1 – Maguire, B, Miller, FA. Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN) 2024 Climate & Sustainability Report. Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. March 2025.

2 – Toronto Academic Health Science Network (TAHSN). TAHSN Impact Report 2023. University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. August 2023.

By: Olivia Lavery

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