After our successful development of the 2017 EPAR, we’re back this year, refining the design that we created for last year’s annual report for transparency of and accountability in environmental sustainability work at the four Lower Mainland health care organizations in B.C. (LMHOs), and adding some new enhancements to really make it pop for all audiences, including senior leadership and health authority and facilities staff. 

In 2017, we conducted a discovery of best practices for reporting on environmental sustainability via key informant interviews with central stakeholders at the health authority and provincial levels, a market review of sustainability reporting across public and private sectors globally, and a brief scoping literature review. We applied our recommendations from the discovery to develop the 2017 EPAR, and then conducted follow-up interviews with initial key informants to improve our work this year on the 2018 report. While you’ll have to wait for the launch to see everything that we’re planning, we can tell you that, in this environmentally responsible digital report, we’ll be building an innovative and sustainable template so that the report can be used for years to come. We’ll also be creating and introducing a clear storyline and call-to-action to guide the development of the report, along with feature good news stories and data that will enhance the report storyline.

Given the volume of data and the technical nature of many of the sections of the report, we’ll also be dedicating researchers and designers to each of data analysis and data visualization so that we can figure out how to present the data in a compelling, clear, and accessible way. We’ll be sure to collaborate closely with the GreenCare project team in an iterative process to create custom graphics, and then we’ll refine them to ensure that they convey all information with complete accuracy while targeting core concepts appropriately. 

To paraphrase the Buddha: Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on … developing and designing awesome reports.