We are leading healthcare's transformation toward decarbonization, climate resilience, and sustainability.
Both the history of our organization and our work today are rooted in the stories of the people impacted by the climate crisis. We believe that every person has the right to live in a healthy environment, and that the healthcare sector has both a responsibility and a unique opportunity to address this issue.
Our Story
Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is an international nongovernmental organization (NGO) that works to transform health care worldwide so that it reduces its environmental footprint, becomes a community anchor for sustainability, and a leader in the global movement for environmental health and justice. HCWH is leading the sustainable healthcare movement, with regional offices and teams in the United States and Canada, Europe, Latin America, and South East Asia. HCWH also has close strategic partnerships with organizations that represent our interests and lead the development and implementation of HCWH-related work in Australia, Brazil, India, Nepal, and South Africa.
Since the mid-1990s, HCWH has been a driving force for positive change. The organization started by promoting proper health care waste management, banning the use of mercury-containing medical waste from the healthcare sector, and providing safe and affordable alternatives to health care facilities. Our extensive experience spans over two decades, fostering collaboration with hospitals, health care workers, NGOs, medical device suppliers, and government bodies at various levels.
The impactful journey of HCWH South East Asia (HCWH SEA) started in 2003. At its early stages, HCWH-SEA implemented the Philippine Measles Eradication Campaign (PMEC) which demonstrated the possibility of conducting a major immunization campaign without incinerating the resulting waste. The project set a global benchmark that was cited in international conferences.
Today, HCWH SEA continues to lead the healthcare transformation in the region through its three major programs: Climate and Health, Sustainability in Healthcare, and the Global Green and Healthy Hospitals, guided by our mission to champion people's right to health and a healthy environment. Through partnerships, platforms for collaboration, and policy advocacy, HCWH-SEA aims to accelerate this transformation across Southeast Asia by 2029.
Our Mission
We champion people's right to health and a healthy environment, leading healthcare sector transformation in the region towards climate resilience, decarbonization, and sustainability.
Our Goal
By 2029, we will have accelerated the progress of health care transformation in the region, through partnerships, platform for collaboration, and policy advocacy.
Our Objectives
- To foster a 50% actively engaged network that collaborates in learning and moving groundbreaking sustainable practices forward, by 2029.
- To create at least five healthcare leaders from 5 healthcare facilities from each of the priority countries that advocates and influence policy on healthcare sustainability that moves beyond the facility/organization to communities and nations by 2029.
- To mobilize partner healthcare institutions/organizations and 25% of the GGHH members to actively participate in multisectoral collaboration for health equity and just transition.