{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,7]],"date-time":"2026-08-07T15:16:14Z","timestamp":1786115774987,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":64,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,6]],"date-time":"2026-08-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785974400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"\u201cInvestissements d\u2019avenir\u201d","award":["ANR-15-IDEX-0002"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ANR-15-IDEX-0002"]}]},{"name":"\u201cInvestissements d\u2019avenir\u201d","award":["ANR-10-AIRT-0005"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ANR-10-AIRT-0005"]}]},{"name":"French government","award":["ANR-23-IACL-0006"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["ANR-23-IACL-0006"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:p>The triple planetary crisis (climate change, pollution, and biodiversity loss) is reshaping health conditions worldwide, yet public health itself contributes to the problem through carbon-intensive and polluting activities. What distinguishes public health is that its environmental footprint arises both from activities shared with other scientific disciplines (e.g., laboratory work, computing, and academic travel) and from activities specific to the field, including surveillance systems, mass screening programs, vaccination campaigns, and community-based interventions. In this perspective, we argue that environmental sustainability should be considered a core dimension of research quality and ethical integrity in public health, consistent with the fundamental principle of \u201cdo no harm.\u201d Embedding sustainability requires both systemic transformation and individual engagement. This includes integrating environmental criteria into funding, governance, and evaluation frameworks, as well as adopting frugal, low-carbon, low-pollution practices in everyday work. Importantly, public health holds a distinctive lever compared with other disciplines. Its preventive mission has the potential to reduce the emissions-intensive burden associated with downstream curative care. In this sense, investing in prevention is also an investment in decarbonization and lower pollution. While acknowledging the complexity of measuring environmental impacts and the primacy of health benefits, we contend that a more sustainable, climate-resilient, and environmentally responsible public health is not a compromise; it is a more coherent, effective, and credible approach.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1888689","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,6]],"date-time":"2026-08-06T05:31:22Z","timestamp":1785994282000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Greening public health: embedding environmental sustainability in research and practice"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Pascal","family":"Petit","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Universit\u00e9 Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, LIG, SANGRIA","place":["Grenoble, France"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nicolas","family":"Vuillerme","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Universit\u00e9 Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, LIG, SANGRIA","place":["Grenoble, France"]},{"name":"Institut Universitaire de France","place":["Paris, France"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"13665","DOI":"10.3390\/ijerph192013665","article-title":"Public health measures to address the impact of climate change on population health-proceedings from a stakeholder workshop","volume":"19","author":"Jabakhanji","year":"2022","journal-title":"Int J Environ Res Public Health"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e1","DOI":"10.1017\/pcm.2022.1","article-title":"The environmental impact of data-driven precision medicine initiatives","volume":"1","author":"Samuel","year":"2022","journal-title":"Camb Prism Precis Med"},{"key":"ref3","year":"2025"},{"key":"ref4","author":"Goetghebeur","year":"2025"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"3240","DOI":"10.1111\/gcb.16689","article-title":"Addressing chemical pollution in biodiversity research","volume":"29","author":"Sigmund","year":"2023","journal-title":"Glob Chang Biol"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e935","DOI":"10.1016\/S2542-5196(22)00309-6","article-title":"First, do no harm: time for a systems approach to address the problem of health-care-derived pharmaceutical pollution","volume":"6","author":"Thornber","year":"2022","journal-title":"Lancet Planet Health"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"294","DOI":"10.1177\/17579139251316222","article-title":"Public health and planetary health: human-planet relationship through education, research, policy, and practice","volume":"145","author":"Matkovic","year":"2025","journal-title":"Perspect Public Health"},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1082","DOI":"10.1080\/0142159X.2020.1795107","article-title":"Educating for planetary health and environmentally sustainable health care: responding with urgency","volume":"42","author":"McLean","year":"2020","journal-title":"Med Teach"},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1300","DOI":"10.1039\/d4su00056k","article-title":"The relevance of sustainable laboratory practices","volume":"2","author":"Freese","year":"2024","journal-title":"RSC Sustain"},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e1009324","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pcbi.1009324","article-title":"Ten simple rules to make your computing more environmentally sustainable","volume":"17","author":"Lannelongue","year":"2021","journal-title":"PLoS Comput Biol"},{"key":"ref11","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"035008","DOI":"10.1088\/2634-4505\/ac84a4","article-title":"An open-source tool to assess the carbon footprint of research","volume":"2","author":"Mariette","year":"2022","journal-title":"Environ Res Infrastruct Sustain"},{"key":"ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e0000049","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pstr.0000049","article-title":"A transition support system to build decarbonization scenarios in the academic community","volume":"2","author":"Gratiot","year":"2023","journal-title":"PLoS Sustain Transform"},{"key":"ref13","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1000168","DOI":"10.1016\/j.cesys.2024.100168","article-title":"Decarbonization of academic laboratories: on the trade-offs between CO2 emissions, spending, and research output","volume":"12","author":"Capet","year":"2024","journal-title":"Clean Environ Syst"},{"key":"ref14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"2606","DOI":"10.1111\/all.15836","article-title":"An EAACI review: go green in health care and research. 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