RPS hosts sustainability roundtable at Holyrood

RPS in Scotland convened politicians, Royal Colleges and health leaders at the Scottish Parliament to discuss its Manifesto for Health and Climate, urging action on sustainable prescribing and the environmental impact of medicines ahead of May’s election.

Published: 2 April 2026

Ross Barrow

Head of External Relations at Royal College of Pharmacy in Scotland

This was published when the organisation was the Royal Pharmaceutical Society.

On 18 March 2026, Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland brought together politicians, Royal Colleges, the pharmaceutical industry and key stakeholders from across Scotland’s health system for a roundtable meeting in the Scottish Parliament. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the recommendations in our Manifesto for Health and Climate, which we launched with Royal College of General Practitioners ahead of the Scottish Parliament election in May. Our event was kindly supported by Carol Mochan who a member of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee in the previous Parliamentary session.

Our manifesto focuses on creating a national movement for sustainable prescribing across Scotland’s healthcare system to reduce the environmental impact of medications. It is estimated medicines account for around 25% of carbon emissions in the NHS.

The manifesto calls on the next Scottish Government to:

Urgently accelerate the electronic prescribing programme, by allocating appropriate resource.
Provide specific funding to primary care to improve sustainable medication disposal.
Enable green social prescribing initiatives across Scotland including with public messaging.
Ensure that the pharmaceutical industry makes information about the environmental impact of medicines readily available in a standardised data format.
Work with Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) to publish and disseminate information about the environmental impact of medicines in their guidelines.
Ensure education providers support prescribers by including environmental sustainability in education and training for health professionals.

The manifesto is endorsed by: British Dental Association in Scotland, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Royal College of Anaesthetists, Faculty of Public Health and The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.

Commenting on the roundtable, Director for Scotland at Royal Pharmaceutical Society, Laura Wilson, said:

“Royal Pharmaceutical Society in Scotland is raising awareness of the importance of environmental sustainability in healthcare and leading by bringing all the stakeholders together to discuss how to make tangible progress.

“The roundtable at the Scottish Parliament was a fantastic opportunity to raise awareness of our manifesto with politicians and other key stakeholders, and to begin a conversation about how we can work collectively towards delivering recommendations outlined in our Manifesto for Health and Climate.

“When the new Scottish Government and Parliament returns in May, we will be following up with political stakeholders to ensure that the recommendations within our Manifesto for Health and Climate are implemented. This will help the NHS to achieve net-zero, whilst at the same time, improve patient care.”