The sun came out in Copenhagen for Day 2 of CleanMed Europe 2016 as 250 delegates gathered for the continuation of the conference at the UN City.

The day began with the Morning Plenary - Building a global network to transform health systems, where Nick Thorp, GGHH Global Community Manager with Health Care Without Harm moderated a fascinating session about the value of building a network to transfer health systems. Speakers representing Global Green & Healthy Hospital (GGHH) network members demonstrated how being part of the network has benefited their organisations in their work. 

First, Scott Slotterback, GGHH Policy Director with HCWH spoke about the GGHH network and intorduced the benefits of the network and why working towards sustainable healthcare is so important in a world increasingly affected by climate change. He also spoke of the network’s new Hippocrates Data Center, an innovative tool for members to track, benchmark, and analyse data on their sustainability programs. 

Next, Rachel Billod-Mulalic from C2DS spoke about the goals of her organisation – working towards greater sustainability and better public health through awareness, education, coaching, informing, and inciting. 

Also speaking at the Opening Plenary, Ahmed Idhammad, Head of Sustainable Development at CHU Marrakech, presented the excellent work being done at Mohammed VI University Hospital in Morocco and their key achievements, which include: the conduction of energy audits, training and awareness programmes, switching to renewable energy from solar and geothermal sources, and a reduction of water consumption, amongst others.

Finally, Dr. Ming-Nan Lin from the Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital in Taiwan spoke of our need to “co-exist with the earth” and of some of the practical steps being taken to label recycling bins at their facilities to promote recycling, which is producing excellent results. Dr. Lin also told participants about a farm on their hospital campus which grows food for the plant-based meals served at the Buddhist Dalin Tzu Chi hospital.

The morning of Day 2 also saw the first ever Market Lounge session at CleanMed Europe where participants came together in smaller groups to discuss a wide range of topics. There were 22 sessions happening in parallel, with a maximum of eight participants hearing fascinating presentations about pharmaceuticals, waste, climate change and energy, leadership, chemicals, and other issues. Discussions in these smaller groups gave participants an opportunity for a more detailed conversation with great networking opportunities. Many fascinating discussions were had and many business cards were exchanged!

One of the tables was hosted by our sustainable food and procurement colleagues Grazia Cioci and Paola Hernandez, who presented their work on reducing food waste through sustainable procurement, and spoke about how, in the end, food waste is the result of bad procurement. During their presentation, they explained the importance of adopting circular sustainable food procurement where not only ingredients are procured, but a whole framework for influencing the quality of meals and improving the food waste management practices is achieved in the long term. 

To illustrate this concept, some best practices from hospitals that are implementing strategies to reduce food waste across Europe were shown. Some of these can be found in HCWH Europe’s recently launched ‘Food waste in European healthcare settings’.

If you would like to find our more about HCWH Europe’s work on food and food waste, please email gracia.cioci@hcwh.org or paola.hernandezolivan@hcwh.org. 

In the afternoon of Day 2, parallel sessions B took place, with breakout sessions on AMR, climate change, and ethical procurement, amongst other topics.

In one parallel session focused on reducing CO2 in the healthcare sector, participants heard from a variety of voices on some of the primary drivers of CO2 in the healthcare sector as well as steps we can take to reduce our carbon imprint. Lieke van Kerkhoven spoke about how we can use the power of collaboration and connection to match resources and reduce waste.  David Vernon Brasfield discussed the steps that the Norwegian healthcare sector has taken to first measure the amount of CO2 they are using in different areas of their operations and secondly, how they've managed to reduce CO2 by targeting specific goals. Patrick Bas also demonstrated the steps that Johnson & Johnson has taken to source energy from renewable resources. 

The second day ended with the Afternoon Plenary – ‘Transforming markets through healthcare procurement’. 

The plenary session began with the launch of HCWH Europe’s new Safer Pharma campaign, which was introduced by HCWH Europe’s Pharmaceuticals Policy Officer, Adela Maghear. The campaign aims to challenge the pharmaceutcial industry to take action to reduce their environmental impacts, raise awareness amongst healthcare professionals about the problems associated with pharmaceuticals in the environment and letting them know what they can do to help, and to help citizens to understand what they can do to minimise pharmaceuticals in the environment. Find out more about the campaign here www.saferpharma.org

After this, Rosemary Kumwenda, UNDP Senior Policy Advisor and SPHS Co-Ordinator addressed the audience and officially launched SPHS’ renewed online engagement platform - savinglivessustainably.org. Kumwenda also introduced the Asia Forum 2017, where SPHS aim to foster sustainable manfacturing in healthcare.

Next, Thomas Mosor, Programme Manager of EcoBuy with the City of Vienna presented the green public procurement initiatives in the city and their current and future focal points, including food and catering, and sustainable buildings.

A lively presentation from Jesper Laursen and Petter Hoglund followed, as they spoke about the PVC-free blood bag project and the collaboration about the project.

Rebecca Calahan Klein was the last speaker of the day, and started off with an energising stretch. Speaking of her experiences with procurement, Calahan Klein said that the biggest constraints weren’t desire, but having enough staff to advance sustainable procurement. She also spoke about the huge purchasing power of Green Health Exchange, which represents $4 billion worth of procurement annually. Finishing off the final session, Rebecca also noted how we are starting to see the industry change products to reflect the demand we are creating. 

Day two of CleanMed Europe 2016 was a hugely successful day of networking, engaging and enlightening presentations on a wide range of topics and left much food for thought for the participants. 

We are looking forward to welcoming everyone back in the morning for the final day of CleanMed Europe 2016.