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Sustainability office

Switzerland

Sophie Meisser
Ms
Sophie Meisser
Head of the Sustainability office

Sustainability strategy

As the largest healthcare provider, the largest employer in the region and a major consumer of resources, the HUG has a duty to provide more sustainable and more socially and environmentally responsible healthcare. The HUG’s ambition, through their sustainability strategy , is to innovate and contribute to sustainable development beyond their mission of care, teaching and research.

Based on the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the strategy is in line with the 2030 priorities formulated by the Swiss Confederation in its own sustainable development strategy and with the themes selected by the Canton of Geneva in its 2030 Sustainable Development Concept.

It specifically clarifies the ambition set out in Program 7 of the Vision 20+5 Strategic Plan of  " + agility and sustainability in meeting the challenges faced by our society" (FR).
 

Commitments and objectives

In order to build the sustainability strategy of the HUG, three strategic priority areas have been selected for 2030:

For each of these areas, objectives, indicators and targets are defined in an Action Plan 2025 which details the 83 measures contributing to the achievement of the strategy's objectives.

A review will be carried out in 2025 and a new action plan formulated for the period 2026-2030.

The development of the sustainability strategy, a participatory approach

Following an assessment of the SER situation carried out in 2020, the sustainability strategy of the HUG has been created through a participatory approach.

Collaborative workshops helped to identify priority issues and courses of action. Some 50 proposals were fed into a digital participatory platform. For six weeks HUG employees, patients, other HUG stakeholders and the general public were invited to vote, debate and suggest ideas or actions to be taken. In parallel, dedicated workshops were set up to collect contributions from employees with limited access to digital tools.

A total of 522 people were actively involved in the participatory process.

Their contributions generated 7,461 votes, 158 comments and 152 practical proposals to strengthen the hospitals’ sustainability strategy and action plan. More than half of the proposals from the participatory process were integrated into the final version of the action plan.

This participatory approach was rewarded with the Excellence Award for Corporate Social Responsibility at the last World Congress of the International Hospital Federation (see Press release - VF).

Last update : 02/12/2022