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Meet our newest Sustainability Champion** - Prescientx! | |
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Prescientx is a leader in Engineered Infection Prevention, the use of materials and technologies to eliminate air, water and surface transmission of disease. They believe it is possible to safely and responsibly reduce exposure to pathogens in an environmentally responsible manner that is human friendly.
Read their full biography HERE.
For more information on Prescientx, please visit: https://prescientx.com/
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**If your for-profit organisation has made a serious corporate commitment to making health care more sustainable, you too can become recognized as a green health 2022 Sustainability Champion by the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care. | |
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Looking to reduce the carbon impacts of care in your setting? CASCADES’ playbooks provide a step-by-step guide for innovation implementation and assessment of innovations aimed at reducing the carbon impacts of care.
The first set of playbooks covers four areas:
Organisational Readiness for Sustainability -Ideas, examples and resources for health systems to complete a high-level readiness assessment of their health care setting and identify opportunities to increase the visibility and
impact of sustainability efforts.
Sustainable Anesthesia: Regional Anesthesia in Breast Surgery- Ideas, examples and resources to advance sustainability in breast surgery
through regional anesthesia.
Sustainable Inhalers in Primary Care - Background information and resources to guide more environmentally sustainable inhaler prescribing in primary care settings.
Virtual Care Carbon Accounting - Background information on the potential environmental benefits associated with virtual care provision, and contains instructions for the CASCADES Virtual Care Carbon Savings Tool, which has been designed to allow clinics, departments, and facilities to track virtual care carbon savings.
Also check out CASCADES Year in Review to get a birds eye view of their activities since their launch in 2021.
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Health pensions must divest of fossil fuels
The Hamilton Spectator
Recently, 130 Australian health care workers noisily walked away from their pension plan. Why would health care workers walk away from a valuable retirement savings scheme? Because their pension fund, HESTA, still has billions invested in fossil fuels.
Here in Ontario, a few health care workers sat up and took notice — because their pension fund, the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP), holds at minimum $1.1 billion in oil, gas, coal and pipeline companies. Health care workers cannot tolerate having their retirement savings invested in the fossil fuels that are stoking the climate emergency.
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Cooling canopy
CBC News
Unequal access to shade means marginalized neighbourhoods are more vulnerable to heat. Here’s how Canadian cities can save lives
The Îlot Pelletier project, completed in 2018, is part of a movement in Québec to curb the heat island effect in low-income neighbourhoods.
The City of Montréal also has a heat wave response plan, which includes a host of measures including extended pool hours, emergency cooling shelters and targeted door-to-door checks in vulnerable neighbourhoods. But projects like the park in Montréal-Nord focus less on crisis response and more on prevention, by making neighbourhoods more climate resilient.
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Kids especially vulnerable to air pollution and effects of climate change, says influential medical journal
CBC News
An influential medical journal has joined the fight against global warming.
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), one of the world's oldest medical journals, recently committed itself to increasing the public's knowledge of climate change because of its devastating effects on public health.
"We clearly recognize that climate change has become a health emergency," said Caren Solomon, deputy editor at NEJM.
As part of these efforts, NEJM launched a series focusing on climate change and public health, with a key article, published June 16, focusing on the impact of fossil fuel emissions on children, including dermatologic, respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.
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Global health has improved for decades. Climate change could change that.
NBC News
As temperatures warm, the health risks of climate change are expected to intensify in the U.S. and worldwide.
The effects of climate change have already left millions of people hungry, caused deaths during heat waves and strained some people’s mental health as they are forced to leave their homes because of extreme weather, according to a major report from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, that was released Monday.
So far, scientists say, world leaders are falling short not only at reducing fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions but also in making their communities more resilient to the health issues aggravated by climate change.
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Health climate alliance launched to help countries turn commitments into action
World Health Organization
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The World Health Organization and the United Kingdom government have launched a new health and climate change platform to support countries’ efforts to implement commitments they made at last year’s UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) to achieve resilient and low carbon, sustainable health systems.
The Alliance for Transformative Action on Climate and Health (ATACH), which holds its inaugural meeting today will act as a platform to bring together government institutions that have signed on to the COP26 Health Programme and relevant partner organizations to coordinate efforts, exchange knowledge and best practices, build networks and access to technical and financial support, link up existing initiatives, tackle common challenges, and monitor global progress.
Currently, 60 countries have formally committed, at Minister of Health level, to at least one of the initiatives on climate resilient and low carbon sustainable health systems promoted under the COP26 Health Programme.
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Recycling and Solar
CED Co-op
All modern human activity generates waste. Technology and energy infrastructure, whether it is “green” or not, creates a waste stream that needs to be responsibly managed. There is no debate to argue against this fundamental truth, and solar is no different.
One of the common objections against solar energy is the end-of-life question surrounding solar panels. Are they good for the environment if we can’t recycle them and they are only destined to pile up in the landfill? How this statement is projected reflects a persistent myth regarding solar – that the panels cannot be recycled. The truth is that they can.
The technology to recycle solar panels already exists, and it is being improved through ongoing research.
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Energy bills: Homes could be heated by floodwater from disused mines
BBC News
Wales' disused coal mines could get a new lease of life as a green energy source to heat homes.
Investigations will be carried out to find the best spots to pump naturally heated water from underground to communities.
The Welsh government is spending £450,000 on the project which it hopes will help cut energy bills and Wales' carbon footprint.
When Wales' pits closed, the pumps were switched off and the mines flooded.
Now ministers hope that the water, which is naturally heated underground, can be used to help Wales become carbon neutral by 2050.
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6,000 new electric vehicle chargers and hydrogen refuelling stations announced in Canada's EV week
Electric Autonomy
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Canadian EV drivers received welcome news from the government this EV Week as 6,000 new public charging and alternative fuel refuelling stations were announced by ministers across the country.
Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) is committing the funding — totalling $45 million — to support the charger installations.
“The federal government is providing leadership on the infrastructure file,” says NRCan Minister, Jonathan Wilkinson in an interview with Electric Autonomy Canada.
“[We are] undertaking to ensure that even in places where the provincial government has chosen not to put money into the development of zero-emission vehicle infrastructure, we are going to ensure that it exists such that people can have confidence when they buy a car, that they can fuel it up when they drive it.”
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UHN on the GO: June 2022
University Health Network
University Health Network's (UHN) first Indigenous Healing Garden continues to take root at The Michener Institute of Education for a second season – thanks to a little help from volunteers and the Indigenous Health Program.
A number of volunteers from UHN's Green Team as well as staff from Miinikaan, a Toronto-based landscape, design and garden company specializing in Indigenous healing and teaching gardens, visited the garden at the corner of Elm and McCaul Streets to prep the space for the summer season.
From design to implementation, the garden is Indigenous-led, following the practices and protocols for planting a Gitigan (the Anishinaabemowin word for garden). Anything that gets planted is either native to the area, or part of traditional medicines used by Indigenous nations for their healing properties to help improve physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.
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How to build a bike-friendly hospital
Beyond the Automobile
The travel demands of a hospital are certainly different from other land uses like offices, but that doesn’t mean that a significant amount of travel there cannot be accommodated by bicycle.
Just like offices, hospitals have thousands of regular commuters, and while there are many emergency room visits, the majority of patient visits are for scheduled appointments (many of whom are in relatively healthy condition). Unlike airports, hospitals also tend to be in really central locations, close to the people they serve, making them very accessible to many within a biking distance.
A hospital is a massive public investment that generates thousands of trips every day. This massive travel generator, combined with public ownership, is a massive opportunity to shape travel and support increased use of transit, walking, and cycling.
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Near real-time hourly weather data is now available directly within the latest version of RETScreen Software’s Performance Analysis module. As part of our ongoing collaboration with NASA, you can now download hourly weather data for the entire surface of the planet!
Click here to download RETScreen Expert
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EVENTS, TRAINING AND WEBINARS | |
The MEET is on the move this summer! | |
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After journeying through New Brunswick, the Mobile Electric Vehicle Education Trailer (MEET) will be headed back to Ontario, starting with Oshawa! Bookings are available Thursday to Sunday with the official launch on July 21, 2022. Bruce County and Wellington will also host the MEET in their communities this summer.
Book an appointment for the Oshawa MEET
The MEET is a community-hub for EV education and awareness that is fully collapsible and transportable. It comes equipped with Plug’n Drive trained staff, informational displays, interactive learning tools and an EV test drive in some of the latest EV models from leading manufacturers.
The MEET makes the perfect complement to any regional EV program or initiative and can remain active in one location for weeks or months at a time.
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Booking for booths at IFHE 2022 is open! | |
The online booking form for booths at the IFHE 2022 Congress | CHES 2022 National Conference taking place September 17-21, 2022 in Toronto ON is now open.
CHES, together with the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, is encouraging all event participants to consider requesting exhibition space in the GREEN PARK.
A block of rooms is being held at The Westin Harbour Castle, Toronto. To receive the conference rate, mention "Congress of the IFHE 2022" when making your reservation.
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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. | | | | | |
