Investigating the integration of sustainable food initiatives in healthcare institutions in Ontario, Canada: A grey literature scoping review protocol

Background and AimsThe climate emergency and other sustainability challenges interact to threaten human and planetary health. Efforts to improve the sustainability of food initiatives within healthcare institutions could mitigate these threats by addressing the four pillars of sustainability: health, social, economic, and environmental. Understanding current initiatives to incorporate sustainability into food programs and the sustainability pillars that guide those initiatives is important to inform priorities for action. This scoping review will investigate the extent to which major healthcare institutions in Ontario, Canada, have publicly committed to, discussed, planned, and/or implemented sustainable food initiatives.MethodsThe protocol follows guidance from the Joanna Briggs Institute and Arksey & O'Malley. The current strategic plans of 57 healthcare institutions in Ontario, Canada, will be retrieved from their websites and used to examine any commitments to or discussion, planning, and/or implementation of sustainability initiatives. The healthcare institution websites, along with those of selected sustainability organizations, will be searched for grey literature from 2015 to 2024 describing sustainable food initiatives within these institutions. Documents will be screened for eligibility by two researchers. Data concerning the incorporation of sustainable food into institutional food programs, and the sustainability pillars addressed, will be extracted by one researcher, with 10% of entries verified by a second researcher. Data will be shared with stakeholders in sustainability to augment findings. The data will be synthesized narratively.SummaryThis grey literature scoping review will summarize publicly available progress toward integrating sustainable food into healthcare institutions in Ontario, Canada, informing efforts to address climate and other sustainability challenges.