- Location
- Zoom & In-person, Room TBD
- Series/Type
- Alumni Event, DLSPH Event, Faculty/Staff Event, Student Event
- Format
- Hybrid
- Dates
- May 14, 2025 from 12:00pm to 1:30pm
Links
The Collaborative Centre for Climate, Health & Sustainable Care presents…
Speaker: Dr. John B. Appleby
Healthcare is one of the most environmentally destructive industries on earth. Therefore, it might seem intuitive to suggest that healthcare as an industry should do more to curtail its environmental impact and for it to become more sustainable. However, a central objection to any attempt to make healthcare more sustainable is that healthcare in general should be treated as an exception when it comes to requirements for environmental sustainability, because it has the special property of being a central good in society that is responsible for keeping the population healthy. Some argue that we should not jeopardize this special industry with the burden of sustainability demands. This talk is comprised of two parts. In the first part I discuss what I have termed the ‘healthcare exceptionalism objection’ in relation to the ongoing healthcare sustainability movement and I ask: how much weight should we give to this objection when determining the burdens that should be placed on the healthcare industry to be environmentally sustainable? In the second part I respond by I arguing that the delivery of healthcare goods and services ultimately has to be balanced with the need to be more environmentally sustainable, and that doing this is compatible with holding the view that healthcare is exceptional. I call this the ‘soft healthcare exceptionalism’ position.