The Green Digest will be taking a break for August! Thank you all for your readership and support for green health care. See you in the fall!
Coalition Announces Safer Chemicals Case Studies
The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care is proud to announce the release of three new case studies through the Safer Chemicals project. These free resources highlight green cleaning in hospitals and will be followed by an additional case study on endocrine disrupting chemicals. Creation of these case studies involved collaborating with a variety of health care organisations including Chatham-Kent Health Alliance, Vancouver Coastal Health, St. Martha's Regional Hospital, Pierre Bourcher Hospital and Synergie Sante Environnment.

To access the case studies and more resources from the Safer Chemicals project, click here . To view the case studies in French, click here .  

See the following Digest story for more detail on one of these case studies.
Aqueous Ozone Cleaning System Assessment at Vancouver Coastal Health

Part of British Columbia’s GreenCare Sustainability Strategic Framework focuses on delivering patient care with zero toxicity with a goal to minimize waste generated and toxic chemicals used by the health care system and supporting operations. It was with this guiding principle in mind that Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) and its supporting partners set out to explore aqueous ozone (AO) as a safe and more environmentally-sustainable alternative to chemical cleaners currently in use at VCH and Providence Health Care’s (PHC) hospitals, health centres and residential homes.

Click here to read the full Safer Chemicals case study.
Coalition Summer Students Complete Work Term

Last week signified the final week of the Coalition's summer students work term. We want to extend a warm thank you for their hard work and dedication to sustainability. The following are summaries of accomplishments from each summer student, highlighting their time with the Coalition.

Claire Barker-Sharpe, Climate Change Resiliency Researcher
Her position, as one of the two Climate Change Resiliency Researchers, enabled her to network with health care officials, hospital administrators, and fellow researchers from across Ontario. With the help of the CCGHC team, Claire developed a document template to be used in the production of resiliency factsheets for Ontario hospitals, and eventually hospitals in other provinces.

Zoe West, Climate Change Resiliency Researcher
Zoe has used her eight-week contract in partnership with CHEO to complete the Health Care Facility Climate Change Resiliency Checklist and provide CHEO with a Resiliency Assessment which can be used as a baseline measure and tool for goal setting future ‘Green’ initiatives. She conducted interviews and made connections with department coordinators and management throughout CHEO, Ottawa Public Health, and the City of Ottawa. Zoe has produced a Climate Change fact sheet for the Ottawa region, and a Resiliency Report specifically pertaining to the results found in the Checklist which will provide CHEO with a resource on climate change impacts for the organization.

Linxi Mytkolli, Greening the OR Researcher
Linxi was the Greening the OR intern this summer. She enjoyed working with hospitals and operating room staff from across the country, gathering data about greening health care efforts in Canadian operating rooms. Linxi also worked on consolidating information, research and resources to support health care facilities in reducing their climate footprints from anesthesia operations. She looks forward to furthering her understanding of the field and continuing to support the Coalition in the future!
Operating Room Ventilation Systems Best Practices Guide for Energy Efficiency, Health and Safety

Operating Room (OR) ventilation is the most energy intensive service in acute care hospitals, which in turn are one of the most energy intensive commercial/institutional building types in North America. As well, proper ventilation is essential to the health and safety of hospital staff, surgical teams and patients. Different hospitals are designed and retrofitted with different system and control configurations, and system operating practices vary widely. For all these reasons, at the beginning of 2016, Greening Health Care initiated an applied research project aimed at documenting best practices for OR ventilation design, retrofit, operation and control, for use by member hospitals in optimizing the energy performance of their facilities.

Click the image above to read the full Greening Health Care research project.
Coalition completes Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA) Energy Project
A collaborative building operator and energy management training effort between the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care (the Coalition) and the Weeneebayko Area Health Authority (WAHA) on James Bay has resulted in significant ongoing energy savings, improved health care facility infrastructure, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and greatly increased local energy management capacity in the remote northern First Nations communities of Attawapiskat, Kashechewan, Fort Albany, Moose Factory and Moosonee. 

WAHA leadership has been very important to this project’s success which has resulted in front line staff feeling more comfortable in taking on project design and application. One of the participants submitted that the course “provided knowledge of HVAC system, how to properly maintain and upkeep buildings and showed me other options to use to solve issues."  The project was led by the Coalition's health care-specific technical resource program known as HealthCare Energy Leaders Ontario (HELO).

Newly minted graduates of Canada’s first remote northern First Nation’s Building Operator Certification Training program (l to r) include Mervin Weistche, Marcel Brazeau, Jean Arsenault, Sterling Trapper, Paul Corston, Wade Rickard and instructor JJ Knott from the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care’s HealthCare Energy Leaders Ontario (HELO) program.   
Watch the final WAHA Building Operator Certification training webinar here .

Start a Building Operator Certification Training (BOC) collaboration with CCGHC and improve your capacity to manage your energy. To learn more contact jj.knott@greenhealthcare.ca.
Sourcing Meat Raised Without Antibiotics

Health care facilities are on the front line of dealing with antibiotic resistance, named a  global health threat  by the World Health Organization (WHO). Each year in Canada, more than 18,000 hospitalized patients acquire infections resistant to antimicrobials and the  “ total medical care costs associated with antimicrobial resistant infections have been estimated at $1 billion ”  annually. However, health care facilities aren’t flexing one of their biggest muscles that could help address antibiotic resistance: their food purchasing power and influence.

Click here to read more.
Energy Efficient Buildings – Health Care

Health care facilities face many challenges that are specific to this type of building since they have strict requirements for energy and clean water resources. According to ASHRAE, the average hospital uses 2.5 times the amount of energy compared to other commercial buildings. Unlike in other building types, energy- and water-related disruptions can be life-threatening events in health care facilities. In addition to the operational risks of running a facility, the overall business environment for health care-related buildings is extremely competitive. Health care executives are under tremendous pressure to contain costs while maintaining exemplary patient experiences and high satisfaction ratings.

To learn more about energy efficiency in health care, click here .
There are now 82 Buildings ENERGY STAR Certified in Canada!

In March, ENERGY STAR® launched certification for commercial and institutional buildings in Canada. Since then, building owners and managers across the country have answered NRCan’s call: “Who will be the firsts?”

Announced at the ENERGY STAR® Awards by the (then) Honourable Jim Carr, Canada’s Natural Resources Minister, the first buildings have been certified! NRCan would like to congratulate and recognize all the recipients for their accomplishment and leadership. Eighty-two buildings from Vancouver to Saint John make up the  complete list of the firsts . They will be added to the  Registry of ENERGY STAR certified buildings in Canada .

Find out more on ENERGY STAR®'s application for certification here .
CAEM 2018 Conference & Tradeshow
Towering to New Heights
Date: September 9, 10 & 11, 2018
Location: Sheraton Toronto Airport Hotel and Conference Centre – Toronto ON

The CAEM conference and trade show is in Toronto this September. This event has a very interesting speaker lineup, including a workshop facilitated by the new CSA committee. Yes, they are establishing NEW CSA cleaning and disinfection standards for health care.
 
If you have not registered as an exhibitor to date, contact Eva Billing at eva.billing@beeclean.net to receive an exhibit registration contract.

View the full agenda here .
CHES 2018 National Conference
Smarter Infrastructure for Enhanced Patient Outcomes
Date: September 16, 17 & 18, 2018
Location: St. John's Convention Centre - St John's, Newfoundland
 

Don't forget to book your booth for the CHES 2018 National Conference in St. John's NL, September 16-18, 2018.  
Space is limited in 2018 so reserve your booth today (if you have not already done so)! 

Follow this link to submit contract for exhibit space

Monday Program Highlights:
  • Keynote Address - Team Broken Earth- Sponsored by Honeywell
  • Build it Right Now to Save Lives in the Future
  • When Risk becomes a Reality; Behind the scenes of an Aspergillus Investigation
  • The analysis, business case, and Implementation of District Cooling Solutions at Toronto General Hospital
  • Upping the Game- How the new edition of Z8000 is shaping health care design for the next decade 
  • Impacting Patient Care by Optimizing Operations & Reducing Energy Usage
  • Engineered Infection Prevention
  • How Smart Robots Improve Logistics for Better Patient Outcomes

Tuesday Program Highlights:
  • Maximizing Emergency Department Capacity By Design: New Workflow + Flexible Environments
  • Primary Health care Infrastructure Design Guide: Patient Focused Design Supporting Collaborative Care Teams
  • Operating Room Relative Humidity Control using Liquid Desicant Dehumidification Technology
  • 5 Steps to a Successful Hospital Construction Project
  • Intelligent Drains: Addressing HAI with Hand Hygiene Sink Drainset Technology
  • St. Michael's Hospital: The Application of Digital Health care Technology into an existing Health care Expansion Project.
  • Relationship Between Indoor Air Parameters and occupant health. Roles of the Microbiome of the built Environment

2018 Facility Tour
Date: Sunday September 16, 2018
Time: 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Location: Nuclear and Molecular Medicine Facility, Eastern Health
 
More details on the website here .
Clean Production Action 2018 Training Courses
Date: Tuesday September 11, 18, and October 2 from 11am – 12:15pm ET
Setting Goals and Measuring Chemical Footprints
  • Connect measurement & management: setting and advancing compelling goals provides an internal management tool and reveals intentions for making your organization and the world better for all stakeholders – learn how to set goals, measure chemical footprints, and assess progress to sustainability goals based on case studies from leading practitioners.

Date: Wednesdays October 10, 17, and 24 from 11am – 12:15pm ET 
Avoiding Regrettable Substitutes with GreenScreen
  • Reduce risks with safer alternatives: with regulatory and market demands rising rapidly to avoid chemicals of concern, now is the time to learn how to identify truly safer alternatives to chemicals of concern using rigorous and scientifically robust hazard assessment tools for Safer Chemicals.

Each course involves three live, online classes of 75 minutes, including hands-on exercises, and interactions with faculty.
Canadian Health Care Infrastructure East
Date: October 24 & 25, 2018
Location: Toronto Airport West Hotel (soon-to-be DoubleTree by Hilton), Toronto, ON

The 2nd Annual Canadian Health Care Infrastructure East provides you with the opportunity to connect with senior stakeholders in health care infrastructure design, build and management. Learn how to transition your hospital projects from concept to long-term successes.
First Nations Health Managers Association Conference
Date: November 5, 6 & 7, 2018
Location: Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel

The FNHMA hosts an annual conference every fall focusing on current issues and best practices in health management. On a yearly basis, we have 500 participants join us at our conferences and we also host an accompanying trade show.
If you have inspirational greening stories or photos to share with Green Digest readers, please send them to Dan at dan@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.