Sustainability in Health Care: Resources and Courses for Nursing Students
Interested in learning more about sustainability in health care? We've compiled educational resources and open courses for Canadian nursing students. Explore them to better understand your role in advancing sustainability efforts — here and around the world!
Resources
Canadian Association of Nurses for the Environment (CANE)
CANE represents nurses dedicated to improving planetary health across all domains of the profession: practice, policy, research, and education. Any student enrolled in an accredited nursing program in Canada is eligible for membership at a very low cost ($15 per year or $38 for three years).
Membership gives you access to:
- educational webinars and knowledge-sharing sessions;
- networking opportunities with like-minded professionals advocating for the environment;
- the chance to get involved in various initiatives and vote on key operational and directional decisions;
- collaborations with other organizations, such as the Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) and the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN), to help advance nursing practice across the country.
Nursing Toolkit for Planetary Health
Co-developed by the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) and CANE, this toolkit equips nurses with information to help them contribute to the fight against climate change and to planetary health.
The Lancet Countdown: Tracking Progress on Health and Climate Change
This tool tracks global indicators linking health and climate change — such as climate-related health risks, heat-related mortality, and food insecurity. It aims to collect high-quality scientific data that engages policymakers and supports health professionals, on the premise that health should be at the centre of our response to climate change.
A Framework to Guide Planetary Health Education – The Lancet Planetary Health
This transdisciplinary framework guides the education of global citizens, practitioners, and health professionals in addressing today's complex planetary health challenges. It offers a common foundational language that serves as a blueprint for diverse education strategies, built on five interwoven core domains:
- interconnection within nature;
- the Anthropocene and health;
- movement building and systems change;
- systems thinking and complexity;
- equity and social justice.
Institutions can adapt it through strategic, logistical, and resource lenses to foster global collaboration toward wellbeing, justice, and a thriving society for all.
Choosing Wisely Canada (CWC)
CWC is the national voice for reducing unnecessary tests and treatments. It works with professional societies across medicine, nursing, and allied health to develop recommendations targeting common practices that offer little value, may cause harm, or contribute to waste in the health system. CWC also provides practical tools — patient handouts, clinical checklists, and educational resources — that support thoughtful, resource-conscious care.
→ View upcoming events and webinars
Courses
Ecosystem Approaches to Health
CoPEH-Canada · Open Access Course · Hybrid
Discover innovative approaches to understanding the many factors that influence health, with an experienced pan-Canadian team. This intensive course teaches methods for research and intervention at the nexus of health, ecosystems, equity, and society, using a land-based, transformative teaching style. Learn more in the team's 2023 paper in The Lancet Planetary Health. It's open to graduate students from all disciplines and to interested professionals, from any university. You can register for the full course at a participating university (with credit transfer) or for the webinars only.
Introduction to Sustainable Health Systems
Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada · Certificate · Online
This online course is for anyone working in the Canadian health system. It introduces the relationship between climate change, health, and health systems; familiarizes you with the concept of sustainable health systems; and gets you thinking about how to incorporate climate action and sustainability into your work.
→ Take the course in English · Suivre le cours en français
Planetary and Global Health Ethics (CHL5633H)
University of Toronto · Enrolled Course · Online
Despite advances in medicine and massive global economic growth, world health is marked by widening disparities, a lack of basic care for billions, the emergence of infectious diseases, and rising non-communicable diseases — trends worsened by climate change and environmental degradation. This course examines the complex, overlapping causes of these crises, including the role of the neoliberal global political economy, and asks whether we need a distinct paradigm of planetary health ethics beyond today's dominant bioethics and public health ethics.
Planetary Health (CHL5433H)
University of Toronto · Enrolled Course · Online
Rising temperatures, disappearing forests, rising oceans, and more frequent droughts and floods: the world is changing fast, and the public health community is largely unprepared for the impacts on nutrition, food security, and access to freshwater. Planetary health is about the relationship between the health of the planet and the health of the people who depend on it. It is a solutions-oriented, transdisciplinary field and social movement focused on the impacts of destabilized natural systems on human health and all life on Earth (Planetary Health Alliance, 2024).
Taking Action on Planetary Health
CPD, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto · Certificate for Health Professionals · Online
This program introduces learners to the emerging, transdisciplinary movement of planetary health and gives them the chance to develop and implement real solutions. Across four synchronous interactive modules and three asynchronous modules with guided group work, participants explore key concepts and frameworks, collaborate with a diverse group, and apply planetary health principles to a practical, novel intervention. The goal: build community and capacity among health professionals committed to planetary health.