Environmental Sustainability in Orthopaedic Surgery – Where We Are and Where We Are Going

Abstract

“The triple bottom line” is an approach to mitigate the environmental consequences of any business endeavor by considering three important stakeholders - Profit, People, and Planet. While medicine is making appreciable progress on its environmental impact, the field of orthopaedic surgery is only beginning to research and prioritize environmental sustainability. Research, including Quality Improvement projects, is the avenue to understanding how to expand environmentally-conscious orthopaedic care. Research that identifies effective strategies for change cannot be effective without buy-in from medical staff, administrators, insurers, and governing bodies.