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Announcing the Green Hospital Scorecard (GHS) Sponsor for the ‘Green Hospital of the Year Award’: Trane | |
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The Green Hospital Scorecard (GHS) has been Canada’s trusted hospital sector environmental benchmarking program since 2013. The Coalition extends its appreciation to Health Canada for supporting and funding the development of this survey.
Participants will be receiving their formal scorecards in the fall of 2023 at which time we will also be celebrating top performers with numerous Awards. This year the majority of participants shared that their primary reason for participating in the GHS was to help their organisation become more sustainable – something else we can all celebrate!
Please join us in welcoming Trane, as the official Award Sponsor of this year’s Green Hospital of the Year Award. Trane’s mission is to ‘reduce the energy intensity of the world’ and has been a staunch supporter of Coalition initiatives over the years.
Announcements on the date and time of the awards ceremony will be provided in the Coalition’s Green Digest. For questions on the awards process and how your company can sponsor one of our additional environmental stewardship awards, please contact
Autumn@greenhealthcare.ca.
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Where is the Money? Investment and divestment considerations for health care workers, associations, and foundations | |
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Join CASCADES and the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care for a panel discussion of perspectives on finance, climate, and the health sector.
As we approach COP28, many of us will be hearing more and more analysis of the role money and investment plays in shaping climate policy. Pension plans, hospital foundations, and professional associations are just some of the ways that people and organisations in the health sector face decisions around financial investments. Hear from speakers about how these investment decisions can account for climate risk and promote climate action.
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Often in sustainable health care projects we focus all our efforts on internal changes, when in fact, one of the most impactful, quickest, and easiest changes to make is to partner with a B level certified bank.
Health care organisations are cash heavy. The cash we deposit into our accounts is used to finance projects, many of which have a negative impact on the environment. To avoid having our funds used for such projects, we decided our only choice was to move our banking services to a B level certified bank.
B level certified businesses meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. By transitioning to a socially responsible bank, we are moving the conversation away from divesting and instead towards investing in our common collective future.
-Ethan Holtzer, Director, Operations and Quality, Dialysis Management Clinics
Learn about the Dialysis Management Clinics environmental commitment and their green initiatives.
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Applied Fundamentals of Sustainable Health Systems: Sustainable Perioperative Care
Perioperative care has an outsized environmental impact via its substantial waste production, generation of direct emissions, and energy use. It is recognized as a significant area of opportunity for reducing health care’s environmental footprint.
Over two sessions, participants will gain knowledge, develop skills, and forge collaborations that will help them advocate for and participate in a bottom-up and top-down shift toward more
environmentally sustainable perioperative care.
Dates: November 16th and 23rd, 2023
Time: 1-3pm PM | 4-6pm ET
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Strategic Energy Management Program
Save on Energy’s Strategic Energy Management (SEM) program is a transformational new program, designed to help organisations improve their energy performance by implementing an integrated system of organisational practices, policies and processes to achieve persistent energy savings.
The SEM program will provide your organisation with knowledge, expertise and training in energy management that can help increase your profitability through reduced energy costs and productivity, build organisational skills, and help your organiation achieve your carbon reduction and environmental goals.
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Choosing Wisely Canada's 10th Anniversary National Meeting: Call for Content
Choosing Wisely Canada’s 10th Anniversary National Meeting in collaboration with the Canadian Medical Association is happening on April 15 & 16, 2024.
Be a part of the anniversary celebration by submitting your Choosing Wisely initiatives and innovative approaches to be considered for concurrent breakout sessions.
The call for content will accept submissions until November 15th, 2023. Meeting registration will open early 2024.
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Collaborators needed
Fashion Takes Action (FTA) is leading a fibre-to-fibre (F2F) recycling pilot as part of the Canadian Circular Textiles Consortium (CCTC), a multi-stakeholder collaborative initiative funded by Environment & Climate Change Canada.
FTA is seeking institutional, commercial & industrial (IC&I) partners to join their pilot that will focus on testing viable pathway(s) for end-of-use textiles from these sectors in Canada.
Learn more and join as a collaborator by emailing Kelly Drennan, Founding Executive Director, FTA at kelly@fashiontakesaction.com
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Baby steps leading to giant strides in reducing plastic pollution
GreenCare
More than 41,000 paper and plastic bags are now being saved from the landfill each year thanks to initiatives undertaken by the Neonatal and Pediatric Pharmacy at Surrey Memorial Hospital.
Thanks to a collaborative effort between nurses, pharmacy technicians and pharmacists on the unit, Brandi and the unit staff were able to replace paper and plastic bags with reusable containers to deliver medications.
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Sustainability as part of a quality framework for the organisation of oral health care
British Detal Journal
The organisation of dentistry at a system level lags behind other health care professions in regulation, policy, education and research.
This paper argues that seeing sustainability as important as safety in oral health care quality would begin to rectify this.
For the practitioner, it also identifies existing guidance on practising sustainably and reinforces that it does not require radical change but evidence-based care.
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Advancing a national circular economy approach: Identifying potential models for Canada | |
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CELC, in collaboration with the Smart Prosperity Institute, has released a new report which is the outputs from a scoping study for Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) focused on Advancing a National Circular Economy Approach: Identifying potential models for Canada.
The purpose of this scoping study is to identify, review, and assess what governance models might be best suited to support a coordinated national approach to advancing the circular economy in Canada.
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True cost of food: Food is Medicine case study
Tufts University
This report features two national case studies evaluating the health equity and economic benefits of medically tailored meals (MTMs) and produce prescription programs. This provides the first “true cost” analysis of implementing Food is Medicine programs across the country.
The report’s top-line findings show that national implementation of produce prescription programs for patients with both diabetes and food insecurity could avert 292,000 cardiovascular events and add 260,000 quality-adjusted life years while being highly cost-effective from a health care perspective and cost-saving from a societal perspective.
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Hydroponic garden provides nourishment for patients
Hatford HealthCare
Seven floors above the hustle and bustle of doctor’s offices and patient rooms, a rooftop garden on the Conklin Building offers a green oasis with views of the capitol building.
About 18 months after the Food4Health clinic opened at Hartford Hospital to help address food insecurity in the city, the program expanded to grow produce that could be given away.
Built by Hartford-based Levo International the simplified system consists of rows of planters fed water and nutrients through food-safe PVC pipes.
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Release of RETScreen® Version 9.0
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Version 9 of the RETScreen® Clean Energy Management Software platform was released on October 13th, 2022 and is now available for download from the RETScreen website. This update has arrived with a number of salient new features to enhance the RETScreen experience!
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EVENTS, TRAINING AND WEBINARS | |
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Reducing our impact in primary care
Join Ilona Hale, MD, to explore new ideas in environmentally sustainable practice. Going far beyond recycle bins and LED lights, the webinar will help participants see the connection between the environment and high-quality care concepts like patient-centred care, de-prescribing and health promotion.
Date: November 7th
Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm PT
Register HERE
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CANE AGM
Join the Canadian Association of Nurses for the Environment (CANE) for their Annual General Meeting to hear from special guest as keynote speakers who will give you a little piece of what CANE-ACIIE has been up to this year.
Special guests include Fiona Hanley, Kasey Knowles, Alysha Jones and Emilie Tremblay.
Date: October 15th
Time: 2:00pm PT
Register HERE
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Intro to E-biking
Join HUB Cycling to learn about the pros and cons of e-bikes, as well as types, classes, cost, and performance to help you choose the right one for yourself.
It will also cover tips for caring for and maintaining your e-bike, along with relevant by-laws and regulations to help give you more confidence in navigating your ride.
Date: October 17th
Time: 12:00pm-1:00pm PT
Register HERE
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AMOS LAS Energy Symposium
The Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) and LAS are hosting an in-person Municipal Energy Symposium on November 2 & 3, 2023.
Municipalities will showcase their innovation and initiative in addressing issues around net zero emissions, energy generation, consumption and demand. From the development of building standards to deep energy retrofits and community engagement on energy issues including an indigenous perspective on climate change.
This is an opportunity to learn from your peers and contribute to energy sustainability/low carbon energy economy in your municipalities.
Date: November 2nd and 3rd
Location: Toronto, ON
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GHC Annual General Forum 2023
The climate change agenda is (literally) heating up. Greening Health Care’s Annual Forum is a leading event in understanding and practice of the rapidly developing transition to the low carbon future which involves every hospital across North America and around the world.
Learn from the latest performance data and trends, share success stories and best practices and hear from health care leaders about strategies for tackling emissions in challenging times. Take away a clearer vision of the low carbon future and practical steps that your hospital can take to achieve immediate savings and plan towards future decarbonization.
Date: December 4th
Time: 8:00am - 6:00pm ET
Location: Toronto, ON
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Save on Energy: Ontario Municipalities Series | |
Next up: Existing Building Commisioning in a Nutshell
Save on Energy is offering a series of trainings for building owners and managers as well as existing building commissioning (EBCx) providers, to get more value from their EBCx projects. In this first event in the series participants will learn from experienced EBCx providers and trainers regarding:
- the EBCx process and timeline
- typical costs and benefits
- common types of savings opportunities
- skills and resources needed for an effective EBCx project
Date: October 10th, 2023
Time: 12pm PT/3pm ET
Register HERE.
Other webinars in the series:
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RETScreen® is a Clean Energy Management Software system for energy efficiency, renewable energy and cogeneration project feasibility analysis as well as ongoing energy performance analysis.
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Have you registered as an organ donor?
Contact your local organ donation agency and speak to your family about your wishes. You have the power to save and transform lives.
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The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care is Canada’s premier green health care resource network, leading the evolution of green in Canada’s health sector as a national voice and catalyst for environmental change. www.greenhealthcare.ca | |
Some articles referred to in the Digest make reference to services and/or product offerings from specific suppliers. The CCGHC recommends that readers research the service and product offerings available through a wider range of suppliers for comparison purposes and in keeping with public sector purchasing guidelines. These articles should not be interpreted as an endorsement of any product or service. | | | | |
