Environmental Sustainability

Island Health is committed to making a positive contribution to environmental sustainability and supporting community preparedness and resiliency for climate emergencies.

Climate change represents one of the biggest threats to human health and our ability to deliver excellent healthcare for everyone, everywhere, every time. Recent and recurring climate-related events on Vancouver Island such as wildfires, droughts, floods, and extreme heat make this link clear. Our significant use of materials contributes to filling landfills and depleting natural resources, underscoring the importance of holistically addressing environmental sustainability.

Island Health is taking action. We are working hard to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, implement sustainable practices, and improve efficiencies while delivering excellent care. The organization has formally set organization-wide goals to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 50% from 2010 levels by 2030, and divert 70% of waste from landfills by 2030.

Current goals and progress

Island Health is committed to reducing emissions and waste to improve health outcomes for our communities. Our environmental sustainability goals are included in our organization’s strategic priorities. As a public sector organization in B.C., Island Health publishes its emissions performance annually in our Climate Change Accountability Report.

Learn more about our goals

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

In accordance with the B.C. Climate Change Accountability Act and Carbon Neutral Government Regulation, Island Health measures and publicly reports its emissions from:

• Stationary sources – buildings, facilities, generators (owned or leased)
• Mobile sources – vehicles, off road equipment, marine vessels (owned or leased)
• Other sources – office paper consumption

View the latest Climate Change Accountability Report for 2023 here.

Previous reports are available here.

As a requirement of B.C.’s carbon neutral government legislation, Island Health is required to purchase and retire B.C.-based carbon offsets for our reported emissions. As a result, we have been carbon neutral on our reportable emissions categories since 2010.

To date, Island Health has reduced our publicly reportable emissions by 15.5% since 2010, and done so while expanding our floor space by 22%. Our goal is a 50% reduction from 2010 levels by 2030.

Waste Diversion

Materials sent to landfill continue to pile up, resulting in land-use issues, water and soil contamination, emissions, and more. Landfill emissions also pose a threat to the health of people and surrounding ecosystems.

Island Health is taking action to improve our waste diversion through:

• Reducing our overall waste volumes by eliminating unnecessary single-use items, and reusing materials and equipment safely and effectively.
• Diverting more waste from landfill through recycling, organics, and other waste streams. 

In the 2022-23 fiscal year, we achieved a 38.9% waste diversion rate from landfill. Our goal is to reach a 70% landfill diversion rate by 2030.

How we're reducing our environmental impacts

Individuals, teams, and departments across Island Health are taking action to reduce our environmental impacts. Learn more about our focus areas, initiatives, and results.

Energy

Energy accounts for 95% of Island Health's tracked greenhouse gas emissions. Since 2008, Island Health’s Energy Management Program has led projects to improve building energy efficiency, incorporate cleaner energy, and operate our buildings with smarter controls.

We have reduced building emissions by 16.4% since 2010, while expanding our floor space by 22%. Our emissions intensity has reduced considerably – from 0.065 tCO₂e/m² in 2010 to 0.045 tCO₂e/m² in 2023.

Island Health’s Strategic Energy Management Plan (SEMP) outlines our multi-year energy management plan to achieve our 2030 emissions target. The SEMP identifies electrical and fossil fuel energy savings and emissions reductions from capital projects. These improvements also lead to improved occupant comfort, reduced maintenance costs, improved infrastructure reliability, and resiliency to climate change.

Looking ahead, Island Health’s strategy for achieving the 2030 reduction target requires a multi-pronged approach:

• Reduce heating demand and eliminate wasteful energy use through continuous optimization of existing assets.
• Implement capital infrastructure renewal & GHG reduction projects at five of our largest facilities.
  • Building Automation System upgrades at Royal Jubilee Hospital, Victoria General Hospital and West Coast General Hospital.
  • Heat Recovery Chillers at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital Rehab Building.
  • Mechanical System Retrofits at West Coast General Hospital to increase heat recovery.
• Retrofit existing buildings to reduce heating demand from fossil fuels. Fossil fuel use would be for peaking and redundancy. Any residual natural gas consumption would be met by purchasing renewable natural gas.
• Design new buildings to use low temperature heating (e.g., ambient temperature hydronics, ground or air source heat pumps, utilize waste heat recovery from building or other process loads).

In 2023, we initiated development of a Low Carbon Resilience Roadmap in partnership with BC Hydro and FortisBC. The roadmap is a shared vision across Island Health for prioritizing future capital projects based on technical viability and cost effectiveness, to create a viable path to a minimum 50% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030, with considerations for our future 2050 target of 80% emissions reductions.

West Coast General Hospital in Port Alberni has one of Vancouver Island's largest rooftop solar photovoltaic systems. The rooftop's 400 solar panels supplement the hospital's electricity, particularly on hot summer days when air conditioning is needed. Island Health also installed solar hot water systems at Victoria General, Saanich Peninsula Hospital, Aberdeen Hospital, and Cairnsmore Place in Duncan in 2011. The thermal systems reduce our use of natural gas.

BC Hydro and FortisBC continue to be strong partners in our journey to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gases.

Green Buildings

All new hospitals must be built with “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design” (LEED) principals and meet LEED Gold certification.

Island Health currently has four LEED Gold facilities:

• North Island Hospital, Campbell River & District campus
• North Island Hospital, Comox Valley campus
• Patient Care Centre at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria
• Emergency Department at Nanaimo Regional General Hospital

Island Health has one LEED Silver facility – the Oceanside Health Centre in Parksville.

The new Cowichan District Hospital (CDH), set to complete in 2027, is slated to be Canada's first carbon-zero hospital and British Columbia's first all-electric hospital. The new CDH will emit 75% less greenhouse gas emissions than the existing hospital. 

Emissions Measurement & Analysis

In accordance with the B.C. Climate Change Accountability Act and Carbon Neutral Government Regulation, Island Health is required to measure and publicly report emissions from stationary energy sources, mobile sources, and office paper consumption. As a result of purchasing and retiring B.C.-based carbon offsets for these emissions, we have been “carbon neutral” on those reportable emissions categories since 2010.

Island Health uses SkySpark, a digital application that allows us to analyze our energy & emissions data in real time. SkySpark collects, manages, and automatically performs analytics on our data from building automation systems, metering systems, lighting, weather, and other smart devices. 

Island Health also developed an internal Emissions Database to measure our other sources of greenhouse gas emissions. The database collects and calculates the emissions associated with a wide range of activities, including solid waste, biomedical waste, anesthetic gases, metered dose inhalers, business travel, and more. The database is intended to help Island Health staff reduce emissions that fall outside the scope of B.C.'s Carbon Neutral Government Program, and will expand to include additional categories as data becomes available.

Materials and Waste

Materials and waste comprise a significant proportion of Island Health’s emissions and have an adverse impact on the environment. We are taking action to reduce unnecessary materials and waste across our sites. Initiatives include:

Furniture reuse: To promote a culture of circularity, Island Health’s Surplus Program at Royal Jubilee Hospital offers hundreds of lightly-used desks, chairs, office storage, televisions, and medical furniture – all free for staff. Island Health staff are encouraged to opt for used furniture and equipment through the surplus showroom when moving or updating their office spaces.

Waste container reuse: Island Health is working with our biohazardous waste collector, Daniels Health, to use reusable sharp containers rather than single use models, allowing for the reusable container to be emptied and sterilized before being returned to our sites for reuse.

Reusable bags: Island Health’s in-house laundry services transitioned from disposable plastic bags to reusable mesh bags, for the transportation of clean linens to our sites. Over 600 mesh bags are now shipped daily from Victoria Regional Laundry and 300 from Cumberland Regional Laundry. The change has eliminated over 100,000 single-use plastic bags per year. 

Soft plastic recycling: Efforts have been made to recycle the blue linen bags that are returned to the Victoria Regional Laundry, resulting in one million bags (75 tonnes) of soft plastics diverted from the landfill per year. This initiative is being expanded to include soft plastic food and linen cart covers, starting with Royal Jubilee Hospital. It is expected that an additional 42,000 cart covers will be diverted from the landfill annually from this site alone.

Paper: Island Health reports carbon emissions from office paper consumption as part of the Carbon Neutral Government Program. In addition to actively reducing our paper usage, Island Health uses Sugar Sheet, a tree-free paper made from the residue waste of sugar production. From 2022 to 2023, paper emissions decreased by 19%, which is the largest single-year decrease in paper emissions since we began tracking this data in 2010. Today Island Health's greenhouse gas emissions from paper are 36.6% lower than our 2010 baseline.

Water

Fresh water is a limited resource on Vancouver Island. Droughts and water use restrictions are now commonplace each summer. Island Health’s operations use significant volumes of water, and so we must improve our water use efficiency and reduce waste. Improved water management ensures the stability of our health care system, protects community health, and preserves the local ecosystems on which clean, fresh water depends.

To reduce our water consumption, Island Health facilities are regularly upgraded and retrofitted with more water efficient appliances and fixtures. Existing water systems are maintained and optimized to a high standard. New facilities are designed to be more water efficient, in accordance with LEED Gold certification. Our organizational culture has also become increasingly mindful of environmental stewardship and the responsible use of water, with staff seeking opportunities to reduce our costs and impacts. 

To date, we have achieved a 30% reduction in our water use index (or WUI, as measured in m³/m²) from 2015, which is a measure of water consumption per total floor space in our facilities. As of 2022, our WUI is 1.1 m³/m², down from our 2015 baseline of 1.8 m³/m².

Transportation

Delivering quality patient care requires significant transportation resources to move staff, patients, visitors, and materials to and from our facilities. We are taking action to mitigate our transportation-related climate and planetary health impacts.

Fleet electrification: Island Health is targeting emissions reduction by transitioning to low and zero-emission vehicles. The health authority is committed to the CleanBC provincial mandate by making 10% of light-duty vehicle replacements zero-emission vehicles, when suitable. In 2021-22, Island Health utilized Carbon Neutral Capital Planning (CNCP) funding to procure two battery electric vehicles and two Level 2 charging stations to support fleet electrification in the north island region. Additionally, Island Health introduced three plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs), providing these multi-passenger vans to a number of outreach programs. 

Active and low carbon transportation: We encourage staff to choose green commuting options such as walking, cycling, transit and carpooling. Bicycle racks are conveniently located with in close proximity to most of our sites’ major entrances. NRGH, RJH, and VGH offer secured bicycle compounds and lockers for Island Health staff. Island Health also provides staff programs that reduce barriers to commuting by transit or carpool.

Telehealth: Patients can reduce travel time, costs, and emissions by participating in the Telehealth program, which virtually connects patients to health care services. Telehealth aims to create a similar experience to in-person consultation, where available.

Climate adaptation and resilience

Climate change already presents risks to health care infrastructure and delivery. In addition to reducing our environmental impacts, Island Health is currently preparing our facilities and operations for a changing climate.

Island Health’s Major Capital & New Construction division (within the Energy, Environment and Climate Change department) ensures all new facilities are designed, constructed, and begin operations with minimal emissions impacts. The team advises our Facilities Design and Construction teams on optimal ways to build and reconfigure our hospitals and clinics for climate resilience. It also advises our Facilities Management Organization on cutting-edge building technologies and sustainable facility management practices.

Island Health conducts a range of assessments across our building portfolio to identify climate change vulnerabilities and act on them. Nanaimo Regional General Hospital was recently the first hospital in Canada to complete a PIEVC Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment.

Island Health applies the following tools to enhance resilience at our facilities:

• Climate Resilience Guidelines for BC Health Facility Planning and Design
• Climate Change Extreme Event Screening Tool for Projects
• Contract Addendum: Designing for a Changing Climate

Our collective effort

Environmental sustainability is a team effort. Sustainability cuts across a wide range of departments and teams at Island Health, who all work in partnership to reduce our environmental impacts. We’re proud to have a growing community of health professionals who are advancing environmental sustainability in their practices, leading their peers through their research and advocacy, and working to protect our local communities from the damaging effects of climate change.

Island Health is also deepening its external partnerships to advance environmental sustainability action. Staff and medical staff participate in sustainable healthcare organizations and professional associations to share learnings and advance our collective goals.

Island Health also partners with First Nations and Indigenous organizations to strengthen land stewardship, climate resilience, and community health. We engage directly with supply chain partners to improve environmental performance & sustainable purchasing, and collaborate closely with our utility partners, BC Hydro and FortisBC, to implement cutting-edge emission reduction and resiliency-building projects. We also consult with all levels of government on a wide range of climate issues. 

Achieving a high-quality, environmentally sustainable healthcare system is only possible with collective action. We are committed to expanding and strengthening our internal and external relationships to take greater steps towards our goals.