Development of an Environmental Audit Tool for Hospital Pharmacy

Health care contributes significantly to greenhouse gas emissions, and pharmacy departments have many opportunities to reduce their emissions.

To describe the development and implementation of an environmental audit tool for hospital pharmacy departments.

A pharmacy environmental audit tool was developed by modifying a generic workplace audit tool to include pharmacy-specific content. The audit tool contained 22 categories, with scoring on a 4-point scale (from 0 to 3). Members of a volunteer committee completed the audit by observing practice areas. The lowest-scoring categories were then prioritized for action.

Overall, the 4 main pharmacy sites in Regina, Saskatchewan, scored 23/66 (35%). Areas of strength identified in the audit included reuse of packaging materials, carpooling, and paperless meetings. Areas for improvement prioritized by the committee included paper use, plastic use, and recycling.

The pharmacy environmental audit tool described here can facilitate reflection on current practice, benchmarking, and goal setting. Pharmacy professionals have a role in leading change for the benefit of planetary health.