About Operational Levers
Pharmaceuticals generate environmental impacts across their lifecycle, from manufacturing to production to disposal. Climate-related events have increasingly affected both access to medications and availability of medications, highlighting the importance of sustainable and resilient pharmacy practices.
Environmental sustainability and clinical quality are complementary objectives. Achieving meaningful impact requires system-level change across hospital pharmacy operations, including both medication management and clinical pharmacy services. Pharmacy leaders play an important role in supporting and coordinating these efforts. Sustainability opportunities include inventory optimization, formulary and procurement decisions, waste segregation, and prescribing practices across inpatient and outpatient settings.
CASCADES playbooks and supporting resources bring together evidence-informed tools and resources to support the integration of environmental sustainability into pharmacy and prescribing. These sustainability initiatives promote operational and clinical change, including quality improvement approaches and prescribing and waste management strategies, and are intended to support implementation, evaluation, and spread of change ideas within health systems
Implementation Resources for Pharmacy and Prescribing
Webinars
Reusables First: Prioritizing reusables in Canadian healthcare settings
This webinar explains the “reusables first” approach to sustainable procurement, which prioritizes reusable products and devices over single-use disposables whenever clinically safe to do so. It highlights how healthcare procurement can help reduce the sector’s environmental impact by decarbonizing supply chains and adopting more sustainable practices to support planetary health and climate mitigation. The session features healthcare professionals from British Columbia and Ontario who share their experience implementing reusable-first strategies in clinical settings and discuss practical opportunities for broader adoption across the health system.
Reusables in Quebec healthcare: Between research and action
This webinar explores the growing movement in Quebec to adopt reusable products and devices as a strategy for advancing sustainability in health care. It explains how shifting from single-use disposable products to reusable alternatives can reduce resource extraction, waste, and pollution while improving supply chain resilience and potentially lowering long-term costs. The discussion features Quebec-based researchers and healthcare professionals sharing insights on the environmental and financial differences between reusable and single-use products, as well as barriers, facilitators, and real-world experiences implementing this transition in health care facilities.
Collaborating with IPAC to advance sustainability and reusables
This webinar focuses on infection prevention and control (IPAC) strategies related to reusable medical devices and equipment as part of the “reusable first” webinar series. Experts discuss how proper cleaning, disinfection, and sterilization are essential to maintaining patient safety while reducing environmental waste. The session emphasizes the importance of clear protocols, staff training, and collaboration between infection control and sustainability teams to support safe reuse practices in health care settings.
Lessons Learned from Unsuccessful Projects
This webinar, the fourth presentation in the “Reusables First” series, explores lessons learned from unsuccessful attempts to implement reusable products in healthcare settings. It highlights challenges such as increased workload, logistical complexity, and difficulty meeting staff needs. Speakers present case studies including reusable metal spoons, zero-waste yogurt containers, and reusable surgical textiles. Across organizations, common barriers included delays, loss of momentum, inconsistent stakeholder buy-in, and the lack of early cost analysis. The session emphasizes that sharing failures is important for helping other sustainability leaders avoid similar pitfalls and improve future implementation of reusable healthcare practices.