[2]. In this editorial, we review the context surrounding this recommendation, and reflect on its implementation, as educators and clinicians with an interest in environmental sustainability. We describe the leading role that anaesthetists should adopt in developing and teaching this essential element of the undergraduate medical curriculum, review the available sources of information and support and consider the importance of this topic within the wider context of medical education. Although a universally accepted definition of ‘sustainability’ does not exist, we suggest that sustainable healthcare is that which meets the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs [3]. This definition is not explicitly environmental, but environmental sustainability is one key factor that must be reconciled together with the social demands and economic constraints of healthcare. Organisations such as the Sustainable Development Unit and the Centre for Sustainable Healthcare make this explicit by considering the costs and impacts of environmental sustainability as part of the ‘triple bottom line’of social, environmental and financial accountability (‘people, planet, public purse’)[4].