Strong, balanced, secure, sustainable, and inclusive growth in the economy is one of the major drivers of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Putrajaya Vision 2040. To attain sustainable growth outcomes, APEC member countries focus on policy responses to environmental and social challenges, such as climate change, and health. To recover from the COVID-19 pandemic recovery, countries foster economic growth that benefits greater health and well-being for all people to ensure the region is resilient to pandemics and other emergencies.

Mitigating the effects of global climate change is essential in the health sector by taking steps to limit its climate footprint. Ensuring a sustainable and safe environment for health facilities is crucial to achieving universal health coverage. Green and clean health facilities are instrumental solutions to coping with climate change, and pandemics and providing sustainable health services to the community. The model of green hospitals includes conserving energy, designing green and clean buildings, generating renewable energy, reducing fuel consumption for transport, providing sustainable and clean food, preventing pollution, reducing and recycling waste, and conserving safe and clean water in health facilities. Green hospitals also contribute to the APEC Bio Circular Green (BCG) economy concept, with integrated solutions to provide a common framework for balanced, inclusive, sustainable, innovative, and secure growth to encourage achieving sustainable APEC outcomes1. The Green Hospital initiatives also conform with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and align with the Asian Development Bank’s Strategic Vision 2030.

During the post-COVID-19 pandemic, the awareness of sustainable climate footprint has significantly improved among ADB’s Developing Member Countries (DMCs) and the demand for green initiatives in the health sector is increasing. Despite the countries’ enthusiasm to adopt the green and clean models, the opportunity and capacity are diverse among DMCs. Singapore and Thailand have demonstrated good practices in the conceptualization and implementation of green hospitals in Southeast Asia. Thailand has adopted the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy (SEP) by establishing Environment, Modernization, and Smart Services (EMS) criteria in the Kingdom’s health facilities. To foster green and clean initiatives, policy, leadership, knowledge, and resources are essential for any sustainability transformation at the public hospitals and community to take place.

This webinar aimed to share the global policy, conceptualization of green hospitals, and sharing Thailand and other countries' experiences on their “Green and Clean” initiatives in health facilities.