About Primary and Community Care
Primary and community care play a central role in shaping health system demand, with clinical decisions on prescribing, investigation, and follow-up influencing both patient outcomes and environmental impact. Care in these settings is closely linked to patterns of overdiagnosis, overuse, and variation in practice, which can contribute to unnecessary resource use and avoidable system strain. At the same time, primary and community care are increasingly affected by climate-related pressures, including worsening air quality, extreme weather events, and climate-sensitive health conditions, alongside growing inequities in access and outcomes.
This section brings together key areas of practice where environmental sustainability intersects with everyday primary and community care delivery, including prescribing, diagnostics, care pathways, and community-based supports. It highlights opportunities to align high-quality care with more efficient use of health system resources and improved population health outcomes.
CASCADES playbooks and supporting resources provide practical, evidence-informed tools to support sustainability across primary and community care pathways. These resources focus on prescribing, care models, and system-level quality improvement, and are designed to support implementation and scaling of sustainability initiatives within health systems.
Implementation Resources for Primary and Community care
Webinars
Reducing our Environmental Impact in Primary Care
This webinar features Ilona Hale, MD, exploring new ideas in environmentally sustainable clinical practice. It goes beyond basic measures like recycling and energy-efficient lighting, highlighting the connection between environmental sustainability and high-quality care, including patient-centred care, de-prescribing, and health promotion. The session explains how practicing high-quality, low-carbon care can improve patient outcomes, reduce healthcare system burden, decrease provider workload, and help address climate change. Ilona Hale is a family physician with the East Kootenay Division of Family Practice and an Assistant Clinical Professor in the Department of Family Practice at the University of British Columbia.
Pathway to Climate Resilience in Primary Health Care
This webinar presents a fireside chat hosted by CASCADES, the Indigenous Primary Health Care Council, and the Alliance for Healthier Communities. Panelists share insights on the role, responsibility, and capacity of the primary health care sector and health professionals in identifying and addressing climate change vulnerability and leading adaptation efforts. The discussion features Imara Rolston, Dakota Recollet, Selma Tobah, and Bev Taylor, and is moderated by Fiona Miller and Natasha Beaudin.
Environmental racism, justice, and impacts on the health of communities
This webinar is part of the “Climate, Health, and Healthcare” speaker series for health professional learners. It features Ingrid Waldron, MA, PhD, who discusses environmental racism, environmental justice, and their impacts on the health of communities.
Opportunities to address the environmental impacts of medication in primary care
This webinar examines how medications, while essential to healthcare, have significant environmental impacts and can contribute substantially to healthcare’s carbon footprint, particularly in primary care. It explains that most prescriptions are written in primary care, creating an opportunity for more sustainable prescribing practices that combine patient-centred care with reduced environmental impact. The session in the Sustainable Primary & Community Care Implementation Series features Ilona Hale, a family physician with the East Kootenay Division of Family Practice and Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of British Columbia, and Trudy Huyghebaert, a clinical pharmacist with the University of Calgary and Alberta Health Services, who share prescriber and pharmacist perspectives on sustainable medication use.
Leveraging Sustainable Occupational Therapy for climate mitigation and adaptation
This webinar explores how occupational therapy can support climate-conscious, sustainable healthcare. It highlights ways practitioners can reduce environmental impacts, design nature-informed services, and build climate resilience. Janet Craik and Nancy Rushford present the Sustainable Occupational Therapy playbook, offering guidance for low-carbon, sustainable occupational therapy practice.