Integrating sustainability and health care.

Abstract

Unsustainable development around the world has contributed to ecological degradation and human suffering while compromising the ability of ecosystems and social institutions to support human life. The United States health care system and its institutions are significant contributors to unsustainable development, but leaders of change are emerging from the health care arena. Health professionals, including primary care providers, are poised to serve as models for sustainability and to facilitate the necessary transformation toward more sustainable practices. Health professionals must, within a practical framework, embrace an objective definition of sustainability and then act to achieve it.