About Strategy and Performance
Strategy and performance are essential to advancing sustainable, high-quality healthcare. Together, they ensure that improvement efforts are guided by clear priorities, informed by evidence, and aligned across clinical, operational, and organizational levels. At the core of this action area are two interconnected elements: measurement and strategic planning.
Measurement provides the foundation for understanding impact and guiding action. While greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are an important indicator, effective healthcare measurement also reflects the broader “triple bottom line” of people, planet, and cost. This includes patient and staff experience, health outcomes, resource use, waste, financial stewardship, and emissions expressed as carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e). Healthcare impacts extend well beyond buildings and energy use, with supply chains, procurement, travel, and waste often representing major sources of environmental impact. Robust measurement enables organizations to establish baselines, identify priorities, and track progress over time, including the outcomes of initiatives such as virtual care and low-carbon clinical practice.
Strategic planning translates this evidence into coordinated action. It involves setting priorities, aligning governance and resources, integrating sustainability into operational and clinical decision-making, and strengthening organizational capacity. Effective strategic approaches embed sustainability within existing structures such as quality improvement, procurement, and service planning, ensuring that efforts are systematic, scalable, and supported across teams.
CASCADES offers implementation-ready, evidence-based resources to support healthcare teams in measuring environmental, financial, and health impacts, and in implementing practical sustainability initiatives that advance people, planet, and value in healthcare.
Implementation Resources for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
Webinars
Establishing multi-functional sustainability teams and task forces
This webinar in the Leadership and strategy for sustainable health systems series is the third of seven events highlighting seven organizational practices to advance strategic planning for sustainable healthcare. These practices are presented in the upcoming CASCADES playbook Strategic Planning for Sustainable Healthcare. The series is organized in partnership with the with the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business/Centre for Climate and Business Solutions, the Sandra Rotman Centre for Health Sector Strategy at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, Dalhousie University Faculty of Management, and other university partners
Mobilizing health system sustainability through greenhouse gas estimation
This webinar explores how healthcare organizations in Canada and internationally are increasingly estimating their full scope of greenhouse gas emissions, both direct and indirect. It examines what organizations can gain from these efforts while also considering the limitations of using emissions estimation as a tool to drive health system change.
Leading change: Mobilizing Quality Improvement for Sustainable Healthcare
This webinar explores how sustainability and quality of care are closely linked within health systems, and how Quality Improvement (QI) can support the transition toward environmentally responsible healthcare. It discusses frameworks and principles for QI and how sustainability can be embedded into improvement efforts at both organizational and provincial levels to reduce environmental impacts while maintaining or improving care quality.
Organizational-level measurement and reporting systems
This webinar in the Leadership and strategy for sustainable health systems series is the sixth of seven events highlighting seven organizational practices to advance strategic planning for sustainable healthcare. These practices are presented in the upcoming CASCADES playbook Strategic Planning for Sustainable Healthcare. The series is organized in partnership with the with the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business/Centre for Climate and Business Solutions, the Sandra Rotman Centre for Health Sector Strategy at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, Dalhousie University Faculty of Management, and other university partners
Ya’akstulth: Leading with Compassion in a Tumultuous Era
This webinar presents the Atleo Centre for Compassionate Leadership’s “Ya’akstulth: Leading with Compassion in a Tumultuous Era,” which explores leadership rooted in relationality, compassion, and cultural integration. It introduces a philosophy that emphasizes “adding no more harm,” building connection before content, and fostering self-connection and resilience. The session reflects on how compassionate leadership can support collaboration, trust, and innovation in complex health and social systems. It features Heather Atleo and Shawn Atleo, who share their experiences and approach to leadership grounded in Indigenous and Western teachings, relational practice, and transformative system change.
Health leadership competencies for current and future climate change emergencies
This webinar features Jeffrey Tochkin sharing his experiences navigating the health impacts of climate emergencies and outlining the cycle of preparedness, response, and recovery. It explores lessons learned through a leadership lens and discusses strategies to strengthen health system resilience, emphasizing the role of health organizations in supporting broader societal resilience during increasingly complex climate-related emergencies.
Operationalizing healthcare sustainability at program level
This webinar explores how programmatic change initiatives connect high-level provincial strategy with frontline organizational action to advance sustainability in healthcare. It features sustainability leaders David Smith and Caroline Stigant, who share insights on operationalizing sustainability within clinical sectors, including surgical quality improvement, planetary health initiatives, and environmentally sustainable kidney care. The session is part of the Leadership and Strategy for Sustainable Health Systems series.
Maximizing impact through external partnerships and networks
This webinar in the Leadership and strategy for sustainable health systems series is the fifth of seven events highlighting seven organizational practices to advance strategic planning for sustainable healthcare. These practices are presented in the upcoming CASCADES playbook Strategic Planning for Sustainable Healthcare. The series is organized in partnership with the with the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business/Centre for Climate and Business Solutions, the Sandra Rotman Centre for Health Sector Strategy at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, Dalhousie University Faculty of Management, and other university partners
Strengthening internal organizational capacity for change
This webinar in the Leadership and strategy for sustainable health systems series is the fourth of seven events highlighting seven organizational practices to advance strategic planning for sustainable healthcare. These practices are presented in the upcoming CASCADES playbook Strategic Planning for Sustainable Healthcare. The series is organized in partnership with the with the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business/Centre for Climate and Business Solutions, the Sandra Rotman Centre for Health Sector Strategy at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, Dalhousie University Faculty of Management, and other university partners
Engage board and senior leaders
This webinar in the Leadership and strategy for sustainable health systems series is the first of seven events highlighting seven organizational practices to advance strategic planning for sustainable healthcare. These practices are presented in the upcoming CASCADES playbook Strategic Planning for Sustainable Healthcare. The series is organized in partnership with the with the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business/Centre for Climate and Business Solutions, the Sandra Rotman Centre for Health Sector Strategy at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, Dalhousie University Faculty of Management, and other university partners.
Align your efforts: Embedding sustainability into your organization’s strategic framework
This webinar in the Leadership and strategy for sustainable health systems series is the second of seven events highlighting seven organizational practices to advance strategic planning for sustainable healthcare. These practices are presented in the upcoming CASCADES playbook Strategic Planning for Sustainable Healthcare. The series is organized in partnership with the with the University of British Columbia Sauder School of Business/Centre for Climate and Business Solutions, the Sandra Rotman Centre for Health Sector Strategy at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Management, Dalhousie University Faculty of Management, and other university partners
Organizational strategic planning and roadmap development for sustainable health systems
This webinar explores how Fraser Health, Interior Health, and Vancouver Coastal Health developed Planetary Health strategies to support climate-resilient, sustainable, and low-carbon health systems between 2023 and 2024. It features authors of a new CASCADES resource, including Karen Reutlinger, Amanda McKenzie, Kady Hunter, and Breanna Gregory, who discuss governance, leadership, strategic alignment, measurement, and key lessons for organizations developing similar sustainability strategies.
Setting a course for sustainable healthcare: Strategic planning and roadmap development
This webinar explores how climate change and environmental degradation pose growing risks to health systems, while healthcare itself contributes significantly to carbon emissions, resource use, and pollution. It features teams from Interior Health, Vancouver Coastal Health, and Fraser Health, who share their Climate Change and Sustainability Roadmap and Planetary Health strategies, including how these plans were developed and integrated into organizational decision-making.