Advancing an environmentally responsible physiotherapy

 

The world faces complex and interrelated crises… Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution, rapid urbanization, geopolitical conflict and militarization, demographic change, population displacement, poverty, and widespread inequity create risks of future crises even more severe than those experienced today. Responses require investments that integrate planetary, societal, community and individual health and well-being (WHO 2021 Geneva Charter for Wellbeing)

 

 The impact of human activities on our planet’s natural systems has been intensifying rapidly in the past several decades, leading to disruption and transformation of most natural systems. These disruptions in the atmosphere, oceans, and across the terrestrial land surface are not only driving species to extinction, they pose serious threats to human health and wellbeing. Characterising and addressing these threats requires a paradigm shift (Myers, 2017)

Action at the level of direct drivers of nature decline, although necessary, is not sufficient … a sustainable global future’ is ‘only possible with urgent transformative change that tackles the root causes: the interconnected economic, socio-cultural, demographic, political, institutional, and technological indirect drivers behind the direct drivers (Diaz et al., 2019)

About

An international community of academics, clinicians, practitioners and students interested in exploring and advancing the field of environmental physiotherapy. 

Blog

Follow our latest musings on environmental physiotherapy. Ideas, inspiration, news, publications, events, and more. 

Join

Become part of the first international community of physiotherapists with an interest in researching, developing, and practising physiotherapy at a planetary scale. 

Resources

A growing selection of resources carefully selected by members of the EPA to inspire your thinking and practice of environmental physiotherapy. 

The WHO Global Action Plan on Climate Change and Health: A brief analysis with a view to the role of physiotherapy organisations

On 15 May 2025, the World Health Assembly (WHO) adopted the inaugural Global Action Plan on Climate Change and Health (2025–2028) during the 78th World Health Assembly (WHA78). The plan aligns with the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and...

Breaking up the boundaries of our profession and creating something meaningful – Living the Oneness of One Health

Things are packed, and the passport is ready. Now it's just a matter of getting on the train and embarking on an adventure. Quite unexpectedly, as a Master's Student in Physiotherapy, I was accepted for the One Health Summer School in Edinburgh, organized by Una...

PhysioHike – Break free and just be!

We, Thies Bundtzen (GER), Maud Weterings (NL) and Arthur Desachy (FR) have all recently finished our physiotherapy studies. The idea for this event has evolved out of the PhysioCouch Community, which inspired us with international events just like 2019 in Czech...

Nachhaltigkeit im Praxisalltag und der Physiotherapie im Allgemeinen – Präsentation auf der TheraPro 2020 in Stuttgart

New EPA member Hannah Krappmann is grabing the bull by its horns and will be presenting her thoughts on sustainability in physiotherapy at the TheraPro Fair and Congress in Stuttgart Germany between 07.-09.02.2020. Hannah also serves as a current board member in the...

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