How Sustainability in Rehabilitation is Changing Lives
Earth Day presents a great opportunity to reflect on our impact on the environment. Certainly, by this point, the effects of climate change are irrefutable. The actions of humanity both past and present have led to significant and irreversible changes to our planet. I see the current global situation similarly as when a person comes in for an injury. What has happened to lead to this event is in the past. All we can do now is reflect on the elements at play that may have had an impact, modify them, and direct a new course to repair.
I named the clinic Pursuit to honour the fact that recovery and health are never truly complete, there are always aspects we can improve and new situations that will force us to adapt. This provides me with the hope that regardless of the injury or situation, there are always ways we can grow. Similarly, despite the seemingly overwhelming number of issues humanity needs to overcome to course-correct, the small changes we make each day add up. In this spirit, we at Pursuit strive to further reduce and hopefully reverse our environmental impact in Victoria, BC and beyond.
In the clinic, we have a saying: “what gets measured gets managed”. If we are to confidently know our interventions are improving patient outcomes, we need to have quantifiable metrics to prove it. Similar to how we approach rehab, we are systematically measuring on multiple scales our energy consumption and waste production. While only in our first year of business, we have already completed a waste audit and have been certified as a Green and Ocean Friendly Business by the Synergy Foundation.
Here are a few of the ways we are taking action against climate change:
Recycle all soft, hard plastics (all of those IMS needles add up!), and foil wrappers
Compost all food waste
Use reusable glasses and kitchenware
Use reusable towels
Use eco-friendly cleaning supplies
Operate out of a LEED gold-certified building
Recycle all of our medical gloves
IMS needle plastic wrappers
Many physiotherapists use IMS needles each week while treating patients, and most of the time these plastic wrappers get discarded in the trash. In our effort to reduce our footprint, we strive to recycle all of these wrappers, including medical gloves used, so that they don’t end up in the landfill.
As our clinic matures, we aim to find further ways to reduce our footprint and in turn provide funding to organizations working to reverse climate change. This emphasis on sustainability has been shown to be important to both our work culture but also to those whom we serve in Victoria. Whether a person is coming for a massage, chiropractic or physiotherapy they can be assured we are doing our best to grow our business in a way that gives back to the community- both to the people and the environment.
At the end of the day, whether it’s the environment or an individual in pain, rehabilitation takes place through the conscious effort to improve one’s behaviour. While improvement isn’t instant, through faith in small changes, we can overcome even the greatest of problems.
