Health and sustainable environment

There is a natural relationship between health and a sustainable environment. A unpolluted and sustainable environment often leads to healthier and happier people. Despite that natural bond, public health and sustainable environment organizations insufficiently collaborate to put health and environment on the political agenda. Together both sectors could build political pressure to change national environmental policies for the better. The green paper on environmental policy in The Netherlands (June 2014) creates the momentum for this necessary collaboration.

In this Spectrum contributors consider the relationship between health and the environment, and reflect upon how environmental policy should develop. Jolande Sap focusses on how people should take more responsibility for the values they really consider of importance: health, sustainability and the actual translation of these into our daily lives and economy. Hans Baaijens and Leendert van Bree write on the dynamic relationship between health and environmental quality, the importance of (improving on) the quality of environmental policy, and recommend to take on sustainability as policy value. Hugo Backx and Jelle Doosje see the opportunities to use the green book as a lever for integrating public health with environmental policies.