This Tuesday—April 22—is Earth Day, a time to demonstrate support for environmental protection. The theme for Earth Day 2025 is Our Power, Our Planet. VPSA member and former VA/VC Medical Staff Planetary Health Committee member Dr. David Smith is one of our planetary heroes who is using his “power” to shape climate-medicine initiatives in the VGH ED.

Dr. Smith was inspired by the UK’s Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s GreenED initiative to measure and reduce environmental impacts.

“The idea is to make us more responsible in how we use resources,” said Dr. Smith. “Emergency departments have high volumes of patients and are resource intensive. When we introduced the idea at VGH a couple of years ago, there was nothing else like this in Canada. So far, we’ve increased waste disposal capacity and options. Small adjustments can make a huge difference, such as sending many ECGs electronically rather than printing them out. This is an ongoing project and there’s more to come such as installing more automatic light switches and having computer screens that power down automatically when not in use. We’re set to become the first hospital outside of the UK to receive formal GreenED accreditation.”

Dr. Smith is also involved with the Canadian Coalition of Green Health Care. He is working with that organization to develop toolkits for physicians and hospitals to decrease their carbon footprint and use resources responsibly. A kit designed specifically for emergency medicine is expected to go live in the next few months.

Dr. Smith is particularly excited about a novel initiative to launch an Emergency Medicine Planetary Health fellowship. He is working closely with leadership at UBC’s Department of Medicine along with leaders at the VGH ED and is currently working on a funding proposal. He expects the fellow would spend a year or two focused on specific problems that relate to climate medicine.

“For example,” he said, “we’re finding that major weather events can trigger mass disasters. We all experienced the heat dome, floods, wildfires. We need to know how to better deal with these big weather events from an emergency department perspective. That’s an example of a module or section that could be part of this fellowship. Other modules could be physician leadership, advocacy, co-operating with government organizations, infectious diseases related to changes in climate. Our goal is to have the inaugural fellow in about 18 to 24 months.”

He credits the VCH and UBC leaders he works with as being open to new ideas. They have been supportive and willing to look at issues through a progressive lens. He also hopes these initiatives will spark other ideas throughout VGH, VCH, and beyond.

“There are definitely replication opportunities in other parts of the hospital and within other departments,” said Dr. Smith. “We can pilot things within a department and then use the results to inspire others. A lot of these things aren’t terribly difficult to do and they actually increase efficiency and workflow.”

Dr. Smith says his planetary health work is invigorating.

“I’ve found the people I work with at VCH and UBC, as well as colleagues in my department and other collaborators across Canada and around the world very enthusiastic about moving these projects forward. That gives me energy and helps me work in a more positive way. It’s easy to be despondent about the challenges we face, but if we just open our minds a little bit there are a lot of positive spaces within which people can work. That’s been a great inspiration for me.”