Sustainability on Environmental Health and Well-Being

Dear Colleagues,

Creating a sustainable healthcare system presents many seemingly intractable problems. In developed countries, aging populations and increasingly unhealthy lifestyles are linked to ever higher expectations that healthcare will preserve good health indefinitely. Costs of medical equipment and drugs increase to such an extent that they are now given their own inflation rate. As healthcare struggles to keep up with demand, staff and budgets are equally exhausted. Energy use increases, as does the production of waste, both hazardous and plastic. The concentration of drugs in wastewater creates serious threats to aquatic biodiversity, and potentially to human health. Tackling these and other threats requires a fundamental re-think of how healthcare operates. Time is running out for incremental change: Perhaps more fundamental changes should be tested out. How can expectations be controlled? How can hospital campuses greatly reduce environmental impacts? Should we expect citizens to take more control of maintaining their health? Should healthcare professionals recognize the value of tradition/alternative cures? What can we learn from less rich countries? This Special Issue of Sustainability invites papers that address the relationship between environment and healthcare.

Dr. Bernadette O'Regan
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.