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Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care publishes three new case studies on Ontario Hospitals.
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2020 Challenge Climate Champion Spotlight - Kooweerup Regional Health Service.
Kooweerup Regional Health Services is a small, rural public health service located in Koo Wee Rup, Victoria, Australia. They provide a range of acute, community, allied health, and residential services. Global Green and Healthy Hospitals recently featured the institution and the achievements of their climate program as a
2020 Challenge Climate Champion. In 2016, they received recognition with 2020 Challenge awards in Climate Resiliency and Climate Leadership. Their work in these areas is documented in two case studies now available on the Coalition's
Resiliency web page.
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UHN Energy and Environment Annual Report. How many Green Team members has UHN had to date? How many litres of water did the hospital consume in 2016? For these answers and more, check out UHN's infographic “year in the life,” also known as their 2016 Annual report, for a colourful look at supporting patient care through a sustainable environment.
Read more.
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Waste Is The Norm In US Hospitals, Nursing Homes. Imagine a warehouse the size of a school gymnasium — about 10,000 square feet — completely filled, at times all the way to the ceiling, with medical supplies. Gloves, masks, surgical sutures, bandages, catheters, nasal cannulas — the list goes on. Some of it’s used, but most of it’s new, and all of it is discarded by hospitals. That’s what Marshall Allen, a reporter covering patient safety at ProPublica, found at the
Partners For World Health warehouse in Portland, Maine. Partners For World Health collects new and lightly used medical supplies and equipment discarded by hospitals and ships them to developing countries around the world.
Read more.
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Leading U.S. Health Care Systems Remain Committed to Paris Agreement Goals.
Recognizing that global climate change poses a major threat to public health, the
Health Care Climate Council
, representing 19 leading U.S. health care systems, has published a statement urging the current Administration to maintain full U.S. participation in the International Paris Agreement. Read the full statement here.
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Operating Room Ventilation Systems Best Practices Guide for Energy Efficiency, Health and Safety. Hospitals consume tremendous amounts of energy to ventilate operating rooms to ensure indoor air quality and to meet the building code and regulatory requirements. At the beginning of 2016, Greening Health Care initiated an applied research project aimed at documenting best practices for Operating Room ventilation design, retrofit, operation and controls, for use by member hospitals in optimizing the energy performance of their facilities. Four major acute hospitals took part in the project, providing technical input and review as well as information on their existing ventilation systems and operations. The Best Practices Guide presents the findings, conclusions, and recommendations arising from the project. Read the Guide.
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Wyandotte Hospital serving antibiotic-free poultry to curb threat of antibiotic resistance. Henry Ford Health System is taking on antibiotic resistance, also known as “superbugs,” that claim roughly 23,000 lives and sicken two million people each year. The hospital is incorporating “No Antibiotics Ever” poultry into food services for patients, employees and guests. The new poultry is being phased in at Henry Ford’s five hospitals and cafeterias. Patients and employees at Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital and One Ford Place in Detroit were the first to be served antibiotic free chicken earlier this spring.
Read more.
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Health Leaders Must Focus on the Threats From Factory Farms. Starting just after World War II, animal production became increasingly industrialized. Factory-like farms radically increased the number of cows, chickens, and pigs that could be raised and slaughtered with economic efficiency, drastically increasing meat consumption. Meat production worldwide has tripled over the last four decades and increased 20% in just the last ten years,
according to research by the Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research group. Factory farming is connected to three major threats to human health: antibiotic-resistant microbes, climate change, and chronic disease.
Read more.
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Putting A Lid On Waste: Needless Medical Tests Not Only Cost $200B — They Can Do Harm. Some experts estimate that at least
$200 billion is wasted annually on excessive testing and treatment. This overly aggressive care also can harm patients, generating mistakes and injuries believed to cause
30,000 deaths each year. There are plenty of opportunities to trim waste in America’s $3.4 trillion health care system — but it’s often not as simple as it seems.
Read more.
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The BPS reporting portal is open for the 2017 reporting period under O. Reg. 397/11. Public Sector organizations are required report on their 2015 energy consumption by July 1, 2017. Information on how to complete the annual energy and GHG report, along with the dates and times for Ministry-hosted webinars, can be found in the toolkit area by logging into the Ministry of Energy’s Portal. Contact [email protected] if your require further information.
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Ontario Making it Safer and Easier to Commute by Bike.
Ontario is making it easier for commuters and families to get around by bike, with new funding to build a better and safer commuter cycling network across the province. Minister of Transportation Steven Del Duca and Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport Eleanor McMahon were in Toronto on May 29th - Bike to Work Day - to launch the new Ontario Municipal Commuter Cycling Program (OMCC). The province is investing $50 million dollars this year from its carbon market to fund this and other new initiatives that support commuter cycling infrastructure. The OMCC will provide eligible municipalities with funding to build more bike lanes and other cycling infrastructure, or enhance existing infrastructure. This investment will help promote safety for cyclists and make cycling more comfortable and appealing for daily commutes and other frequent trips. Investing in cycling infrastructure also helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions across Ontario. Read more.
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New World Bank Report Calls for Health Sector Leadership on Climate. Th
e World Bank Group’s health and climate directors released a
report on Tuesday establishing a new framework for health systems in every country to become leaders in addressing climate change. The report is a joint production with Health Care Without Harm. In its title, the report coins the term Climate-Smart Health Care, an approach that sets forth both low-carbon and resilience strategies. These strategies are designed for communities, ministries of health, hospitals, and health systems to deploy while addressing the health impacts of climate change.
Read more.
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Congratulations Horizon Health Network, recipient of the Canadian College of Health Leaders Energy and Environmental Stewardship Award 2017. This award recognizes a progressive healthcare organization that has implemented programs that demonstrate environmental responsibility through the reduction of energy usage, the preservation of natural resources and effective waste diversion solutions.
Read more.
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More ticks means an increase of Lyme disease across Canada — thanks to climate change. Blacklegged ticks are slowly spreading to new parts of Canada, bringing Lyme disease with them, say public health researchers. The number of Lyme disease cases has shot up across Canada over the last seven years, from 144 in 2009 to a high of 917 in 2015. Blacklegged ticks carry the bacteria that causes Lyme disease, and transmit it to humans through bites.
Read more.
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Registration for HealthAchieve 2017 Now Open!
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Global health care and business leaders come to HealthAchieve to be empowered by the potential that change holds. They seek new ways to push boundaries that move the health care system forward, to learn from and collaborate with industry leaders and innovators, and, ultimately, to change lives by helping to create a high-performing health system that is truly focused on putting patients first.
This year, HealthAchieve will be in the South Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre over two days, November 6 and 7.
Register today and save with early bird rates!
www.healthachieve.com
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Bike Month 2017 in Toronto
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Bike month is upon Toronto! It's time to embrace carbon-free, heart-healthy travel. This week was
Bike to School Week - If you didn't know, there's still one day left to hit the road.
UHN is offering free
Basic and
Advanced Bike maintenance classes to all employees and volunteers across their sites. For more bike-related events happening around Toronto in bike month,
click here.
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National Health Leadership Conference
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Value-based healthcare: Embracing a patient and family-centered approach
June 12-13, 2017
Vancouver, British Columbia
This conference is the largest national gathering of health system decision-makers in Canada including trustees, chief executive officers, directors, managers, department heads and other health leaders representing various sectors and professions in health regions, authorities and alliances, hospitals, long-term care organizations, public health agencies, community care, mental health and social services. As well, the conference draws participants from government, education and research organizations, professional associations, consulting firms and industry.
The conference will include two sessions dealing with sustainability issues:
1. Finding and Framing the Value of Food in Health Care, offered by NOURISH program participants Shelly Crack from Haida Gwai Hospital and Michelle Nelson from Covenent Health and leaders from the McConnell Foundation Beth Hunter and Hayley Lapalme. See more info at: http://www.nhlc-cnls.ca/sessions/10/
2. Come Hell or High Water: Building Resilience, Managing Risk and Gaining Returns from Climate Change, presented by the Coalition's Green Health Leader Neil Ritchie, Deanna Fourt from Island Health and Angie Woo from Lower Mainland Health. See more detail at: http://www.nhlc-cnls.ca/sessions/14/
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Call for Applications to
Al Gore's next Climate Reality training session
!
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Date: June 27-29, 2017
Location: Seattle, Washington
Join the Climate Reality Leadership Corps for training and work with former US Vice President Al Gore and renowned climate scientists and communicators to learn about what’s happening to our planet and how you can use social media, powerful storytelling, and personal outreach to inspire audiences to take action. Come for three days and leave with the tools to change the world.
Climate Reality Leadership Corps Trainings are completely self-funded by attendees. There is no fee to attend the training, but you will need to pay for your own travel and lodging. During the training, The Climate Reality Project will provide all training materials.
To become a member of the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, you must be accepted and attend the training.
Applications are now being accepted! Apply
HERE.
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Accelerating Circular Economic Behaviour and Waste Reduction in the
IC&I Sector
Thursday, June 8, 2017
Beanfield Centre, Toronto
Waste reduction is a key performance indicator for environmental performance and facility management efficiency. Given the direct links between waste elimination, greenhouse gas emissions reductions, and growing policy interest in advancing Canada's circular economy, there are exciting opportunities to rethink procurement practices, on-site operations, and customer and vendor relations.
That's why Recycling Council of Ontario convened an advisory committee made up of leading organisations that own and manage significant real estate portfolios in Canada to acquire further insight on the opportunities and barriers to improve waste reduction and advance circular economy practices in the IC&I sector. Through discussion and deliberation, the Advisory Committee identified areas of interest that will form the basis of the Knowledge Sessions: Accelerating Circular Economic Behaviour and Waste Reduction in the IC&I Sector.
RCO Member Rate: $300
Non-Member Rate (early bird to May 25): $375
Non-Member Rate (May 26 - June 6): $425
Register Now.
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