Elsevier's 2 conference on "Impact of Environmental Changes on Infectious Diseases" (IECID), convened in May 2017 in Trieste, Italy, brought together some 120 researchers from more than 20 countries. They presented the latest findings and discussed the impact of current and predicted future environmental change on infectious disease dynamics in humans, livestock and wildlife in different parts of the world. Particular emphasis was placed on food-, vector- and water-borne diseases within the general theme of infectious diseases of poverty and emerging and re-emerging diseases. The potential impact of mobility, travel, population growth, trade and globalization on infectious disease dynamics against the background of a changing climate, land use, air quality and urbanization on individual, population, ecosystem and planetary health were addressed. Speakers at the conference were encouraged to put forth their talks into stand-alone manuscripts, which resulted in a unique collection of 13 articles, now brought together into a thematic issue of Acta Tropica. In this umbrella piece, we synthesize key findings from the published articles and highlight potential actions that might be taken forward to prevent and mitigate the impact of environmental change on infectious diseases. The work presented is salient in the current era of the Sustainable Development Goals.