Late last year I attended 2 excellent events: NHS England’s Pathology Transformation and Green NHS symposium, ‘How Green Is Your Lab?’ – hosted in the College – and the College’s International Pathology Day virtual event on planetary health. These really gave me pause for thought on what we can and should be doing in pathology to tackle the climate crisis; this is theme of this issue. For more information about the ‘How Green Is Your Lab?’ event, read Dr Rajeka Lazarus’s reflections and key take-home messages.

Dr Claire Gordon, Consultant in Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the UK Health Security Agency's (UKHSA) Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory, introduces the concept of ‘wicked problems’ – problems of extreme complexity, which implicate numerous and conflicting stakeholders, and where efforts to act may only, at best, mitigate but not solve the issue. Climate change is an example of a wicked problem (as indeed is another College priority, antimicrobial resistance). Dr Gordon also details the expanding range of infectious diseases and considers the running of sustainable pathology services.

Professor Virginia Murray, Head of Global Disaster Risk Reduction at UKHSA, explores the impact of climate change on health; Sheri Scott, Institute of Biomedical Science Council Member, looks at the impact of pathology services on the environment and shares practical strategies that we can all implement in our labs to help us to achieve more sustainable and greener services.

The College itself has also been working on its own sustainability strategy for some time now. Our CEO Daniel Ross reports on what steps have been taken so far and what further steps are planned.