The International Hospital Federation (IHF)’s Geneva Sustainability Centre and the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association (AHHA) have teamed up to drive environmental sustainability within Australian hospitals and healthcare delivery settings. This collaboration will focus on the adoption and utilisation of the Sustainability Accelerator Tool (SAT), a digital platform developed by the IHF’s Geneva Sustainability Centre in collaboration with Deloitte Switzerland.
Piloted with hospitals across the IHF’s global membership, the SAT empowers hospitals and healthcare leaders by providing a digital solution for strategic planning and performance benchmarking, to drive sustainable, low-carbon, equitable, and resilient healthcare systems. Underpinned by a framework of global key performance indicators, the SAT targets three key domains: Environment, Health equity and wellbeing, and Leadership and governance.
With the launch of Australia’s National Health and Climate Strategy in December 2023, AHHA recognises the pivotal role of the SAT in achieving the strategy’s objectives of health system resilience, decarbonisation, international collaboration, and health policy integration. ‘Healthcare systems are impacted by climate change, and hospitals significantly contribute to emissions. SAT offers tailored support to leaders of hospitals and healthcare services, to facilitate implementation of the national strategy.’ said AHHA Chief Executive Ms Kylie Woolcock.
Dr Muna Tahlak, IHF President, highlighted the role of the IHF’s Geneva Sustainability Centre in supporting healthcare leaders worldwide: ‘The IHF established the Geneva Sustainability Centre to equip hospital leaders with the knowledge, skills, and tools to transition to net zero healthcare delivery. The SAT complements our mission by offering a comprehensive solution to assess organisational sustainability maturity and track progress against key performance indicators.’
The cloud-based tool enables executives to report their health service’s performance against core indicators and compare it to other healthcare organisations worldwide.
‘The Sustainability Accelerator Tool will help transform the way that the healthcare sector drives its sustainability agenda by leveraging cloud technology to action-orient globally relevant sustainability KPIs.’ said Ms Sara Siegel, Global Head of Healthcare at Deloitte, emphasising the transformative potential of the SAT.
Visit the Geneva Sustainability Centre website for more information about the Sustainability Accelerator Tool.
SAT is the latest addition to the Geneva Sustainability Centre’s toolbox of resources developed specifically for executives in the healthcare sector. In July 2023, an online learning tool – the Carbon Emissions Learning Lab (CELL) simulator – was launched for executives to understand the impacts and organisational benefits of sustainability-oriented decision-making. A learning programme, as well as free guides and case studies are also available.