Establishing a community development project with planetary health principles: a public health approach to learning and teaching

Jean Ross; Samuel Mann

doi:10.15406/mojph.2026.15.00507

MOJ

eISSN: 2379-6383

Public Health

Case Report Volume 15 Issue 1

Establishing a community development project with planetary health principles: a public health approach to learning and teaching

Jean Ross, Samuel Mann

Received: December 18, 2025 | Published: January 8, 2026

Citation: Ross J, Mann S. Establishing a community development project with planetary health principles: a public health approach to learning and teaching. MOJ Public Health. 2026;15(1):1-6. DOI: 10.15406/mojph.2026.15.00507

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Abstract

Planetary Health provides a model to clearly integrate sustainability and mitigate climate change as the ultimate determinant of health. Planetary Health is focused on the interconnectedness of the health of humans, non-humans and the physical environment, and relates closely to nurses’ social mandate, to enhance health status. In this paper, we report on a community development project underpinned with the Community Health Assessment Sustainable Education model and Planetary Health 12-principles. A partnership developed between a community-led team working in environmental health, an educational institution and student nurse learners. Using the Planetary Health 12 education principles as a framing device, we show that the Community Health Assessment Sustainable Education model provides a basis for promoting all areas of the Planetary Health principles through incorporation in nursing education. Planetary Health in nursing education will be of particular interest to nurse educators tasked with integrating sustainability into nursing curricula and to nursing students who find themselves taken from their primary practice comfort zones and sent to the community to save the world as sustainable practitioners.

Keywords: planetary health, sustainability, community development, student nurses, education, CHASE model