Dumfries clinical pharmacist, Dr Emily Kennedy, has been shortlisted for Health Care Without Harm’s Europe Sustainability Champion of the Year Award for 2025.
Emily divides her time between NHS Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Government, where she’s been working the Effective Prescribing and Therapeutics team, and is a part of the Sustainability Action Programme.
The nomination is specifically for her work in respiratory care and highlighting the benefits to patients of medicines’ reviews and the devastating impact inhaler propellant is having on the environment.
The winner is expected to be announced this month.
Emily said: “I am honoured to have been nominated and shortlisted. This recognition is a testament to the outstanding work of the Effective Prescribing and Therapeutics team in integrating sustainability into policy.”
Alpana Mair, Head of Effective Prescribing and Therapeutics said: “Emily’s unique combination of clinical experience, policy development and deep commitment to sustainability made her a standout candidate for this recognition. There is good work happening across the sustainability programme and it is wonderful to have one of our own celebrated.”
Emily’s sustainability journey
Emily divides her time between NHS Dumfries and Galloway and government. In both roles she has made significant strides in promoting sustainably issues across various areas of prescribing.
However, it is in respiratory care that she is most at home. She promotes sustainability, especially around asthma inhalers, in her engagements with patients and clinical colleagues. At one of her GP practices, St Michael’s Medical Centre in Dumfries, she has been at the forefront of introducing eco-reviews with asthma and COPD patients.
She established the Green Prescribing Group in NHS Dumfries and Galloway to support and encourage prescribers to cultivate an environmentally aware approach to prescribing. The group has led on initiatives such as patient information screens – on greener medicines use – in GP surgeries and hospital waiting areas, an oral solution to oral tablet project in paediatrics, and reducing the use of plastic in the hospital dispensing process.
This work resulted in Emily being invited to join the NHS Dumfries and Galloway’s Climate Emergency and Sustainability Board as the pharmacist representative. From this has grown the Green Clinical Network of which she is an active member.
Nationally, Emily established the Scottish Respiratory Pharmacy Special Interest Group – which has representation from every sector in pharmacy across Scotland – and which drives the environmental agenda. She steered the group through its first three years and is now its professional secretary.
To follow the awards visit Home | Health Care Without Harm (Europe)