June 9th, 2022

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Join our volunteer team!

The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care is seeking your help in assisting champions in hospitals and long-term care homes to become more powerful stewards of our environment.

Current volunteer and internship opportunities include:

• Research and Project Development
• Communications, Social Media and Outreach
• Fundraising and Administration
• Proposal Writing
• Managing Memberships
• Software programming and Website Support

Work with some of Canada’s most committed green health care

leaders while enhancing your skills and talents. Potential networking

opportunities for those wishing to pursue a career in sustainability.

Help us build an environmentally-sustainable, climate resilient, net

zero Canadian health system.

Contact Kent Waddington at [email protected] to learn more and apply. 

"Do No Harm"... Is that it? Let's build more sustainable health care. A clinicians guide for advocacy. 

On June 28th at 7:30PM ET join the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care and PEACH Health Ontario as we host a virtual presentation by Stuart Elgie (Architect, OAA, MRIAC). 

This webinar will:

• Seek to define sustainability terms and frameworks such as LEED and WELL,
• Provide some context for sustainability in the health care built environment in Ontario and British Columbia,
• Identify emerging trends for sustainable health care design,
• Provide insight into the design and project implementation process to leverage clinical advocacy.

Questions and discussion will be welcome.

Upcoming Opportunities

CASCADES is looking for Patient Partner Advisory Committee Members

CASCADES is a multi-year capacity-building initiative to address health care’s contribution to the climate crisis. If you would like to provide feedback, and guidance to the leadership of CASCADES regarding accountability, strategic directions, and national collaboration efforts, this could be the opportunity for you!

The principal focus of the Advisory Committee is to provide advice to the Director and Executive Committee in support of the development of strategy and activity planning for CASCADES.

CASCADES is seeking patient partners to sit on the Advisory Committee to bring their experience, perspectives and expertise to the conversations and to ensure that the CASCADES mission is effective and meaningful to patients.

Members are asked to serve a one-year term. The Advisory Committee will meet four times per year, with the possibility of additional meetings, if required.

Call for papers - Journal of Climate Change and Health Special Issue

For this Special Issue The Journal of Climate Change and Health seeks research papers on Climate Change and Health that showcase transdisciplinary and inter-organisational collaborations.

They are interested in research articles related to the development and operationalization of optimal processes and methods that have facilitated collaborations between health and diverse sectors and fields such as, but not limited to, transportation, agriculture, government, finance, traditional knowledges, and the natural sciences.

Concomitantly, they are also interested in papers that have utilized and amplify inclusive and community-driven strategies to increase collaboration with those who are most affected by the health effects from climate change.

Deadline for Submission: August 31, 2022

Climate Conscious Inhaler Prescribing Collaborative

This fall, CASCADES will be running the Climate Conscious Inhaler Prescribing Collaborative – a learning opportunity based on an established spread model for Quality Improvement innovation.

Through three learning sessions (between September 2022 and March 2023) and regular check-ins, participating teams from primary care settings across Canada will receive access to and training on a number of tools that can be used to facilitate de-prescribing, switching, teaching technique, and proper disposal.

Sign up for the information session:

Date: June 14th, 2022

Time: 12:00PM ET

Call for 2023 webinar series topics

The Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES) Webinar Sub-committee is seeking proposals for webinar topics for 2023. Presentations must be an educational benefit to all attendees.

Preference will be given to topics that cover energy and sustainability, HVAC, domestic water systems management, commissioning, contract resolution law, capital planning, project finances, budget development, building management systems integration, LEED, project management, infection control during construction and renovation, wayfinding, illumination, electrical requirements for HCF, UV compliance and preventative maintenance; or any other topic that is related to the management of a health care facility.

Please use the 2023 Webinar Call for Abstracts form to submit a topic for consideration for the CHES 2023 Webinar Series. Completed forms should be sent to Donna Dennison, CHES Executive Director at [email protected].

Deadline for submissions: June 30, 2022

Healthy planet, healthy people - human health and natural systems 

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (wbcsd)

Human activities are driving fundamental changes to the biosphere and disrupting many of our planet’s natural systems. There is increasing scientific evidence that the unfolding climate crisis, global pollution, unprecedented levels of biodiversity loss, and pervasive changes in land use and cover threaten nearly every dimension of human health and wellbeing.

As the planetary emergency continues to unfold, a litany of health risks look set to place an ever-growing burden on health systems, societies and economies worldwide. These risks include significant rises in malnutrition, infectious and non-communicable diseases, migration, displacement and conflict, and negative mental health impacts.

Partnering for climate resilience: A community guide to community-based disaster planning for health care

Health Care Without Harm 

This document provides a new approach to disaster planning and climate preparedness built on a partnership between health systems and the communities they serve working together to plan for and mitigate the impacts of climate change.

The guide provides a playbook and sample materials for health care institutions to partner with emergency planners, public health professionals, and community-based organisations to run a disaster scenario exercise to identify and address vulnerabilities and enable communities to better withstand climate impacts.

Guilbeault says international climate conversation should shift away from liability

Canadas National Observer 

Halfway between last year’s UN climate conference and this year’s meeting in Egypt, Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault is trying to thread the needle between Canada’s track record as the top fossil fuel financier in the G7 and its role delivering cash promised to developing countries for their energy transition.

On a phone call from Ghana, Guilbeault described a whirlwind European tour of meetings over the coming weeks where he intends to bring countries closer to an agreement on several climate finance issues like carbon pricing, paying for loss and damage and convincing rich nations to provide the $100 billion a year they promised to developing countries over a decade ago.

Impact investing, waste reduction, and a net-zero future: DMC is not your average health care provider

VanCity 

The team at Dialysis Management Clinics (DMC) takes the climate emergency seriously. So seriously in fact, that they have become the only zero-emission dialysis facility in Canada.

“As health care providers, we need to address the issues that are affecting population health,” said Ethan Holtzer, Director at DMC. “And according to the World Health Organisation, climate change is the biggest health threat facing humanity.”

DMC’s team believes it’s necessary to keep the climate emergency top of mind to ensure a livable and healthy future for the communities they support and the world around them.

FOOD SYSTEMS

Confronting the climate crisis with food systems transformation

Global Alliance for the Future of Food

Integrating food systems transformation into the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – the national climate actions at the heart of the Paris Agreement, is critical to delivering on interconnected ecological, biodiversity, health, economic, social, and cultural goals. Taking a food systems approach builds climate resilience and results in a diversity of context-specific solutions for food production, distribution, consumption, and waste. Yet, food systems are rarely prioritized in climate policy. 

This catalogue of global Case Studies complements a suite of publications that are designed to centre food systems transformation in future climate debate and policy.

In their case study on Canada, Nourish was featured as an innovative way to bring together diverse actors working across health and food systems.

The environmental cost of red meat: Striking the right balance between nutrition and nature

American Journal of Health Promotion

Human population is on pace to surpass 10 billion people by 2060, while per-capita incomes will also likely continue to rise over the next century, especially in large economically transitioning countries like India and China. These larger and wealthier populations will demand significantly more calories and disproportionately more animal-source food in the coming decades, placing a considerable strain on agricultural and livestock systems.

However, the natural systems that underpin food production are already crumbling under current practices with accelerating biodiversity loss, land degradation, freshwater scarcity, and climate change. In this context, we must ask: how can we produce more food with fewer resources? How do we provide nutritious diets for all while protecting what remains of our biosphere?

In this article researchers discuss its environmental costs, its environment-nutrition tradeoffs, opportunities for environmentally optimizing red meat production, and alternatives to avoid red meat altogether.

Local foods in health care: Promoting a stronger community

Middlesex London Food Policy Council

Maintaining health and well-being is a main goal of hospitals and long-term care homes. Incorporating local foods into health care institution menus not only aligns with this mission remarkably but can lead to healthier patients and communities.

There are lots of benefits to using local foods on the menu in hospitals and long-term care homes. Here are just a few: 

• Increased patient satisfaction and nutrition
• stronger support for the provincial economy
• smaller carbon footprint

Read the article to learn some key strategies for successful local food use in health care institutions. 

Good meals are here to stay: Residents a Pioneer Ridge enjoy locally produced food.

The Walleye

If we've learned anything from the past couple of years, it's how vulnerable we are to volatility of global supply chains.

When manufacturers were forced to shut down through the pandemic, many goods became very difficult to access even after production resumed - ask anyone who tried to purchase furniture or appliances. Prices of other goods, such as lumber, soared out of sight. A labour disruption at a west coast port suddenly made many imported goods unavailable.

But in Northwestern Ontario, farmers were still farming, anglers were still fishing, growers were still growing. At Pioneer Ridge long-term care home, visitations were curtailed, but caregivers kept on caring, and the kitchen continued putting out meals. 

In a world where most institutions purchase almost all their foods through multi-national distributors, the City of Thunder Bay began buying direct from area farmers several years ago.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

Opportunities for accelerating school bus electrification in Ontario

Delphi Group

The Delphi Group, Pollution Probe and the Canadian Partnership for Children’s Health and Environment, with the generous support of the Trottier Family Foundation, authored this white paper to support the transition to an electric school bus fleet across Ontario.

The paper illustrates how the electrification of the provincial school bus fleet would help to combat climate change, protect the health of Ontario’s children and other vulnerable residents, and generate substantial economic development opportunities for the province’s manufacturing sector.

Zero-emission vehicle registrations in Canada hit 8.3 per cent in first quarter of 2022

Electric Autonomy

New car registration totals for the first quarter of 2022 show electric vehicle uptake in Canada is not slowing down. Instead, it’s gathering speed.

According to London-based consulting firm IHS Markit, zero-emission vehicles (ZEV, which include battery electric and plug-in hybrid) made up 8.3 per cent of new vehicle registrations between Jan. 1 and March 31. That’s the equivalent of one out of every 12 vehicles.

By comparison, in the fourth quarter of 2021, by IHS data, the ZEV market share accounted for 6.5 per cent of registrations. Given that the Q4 figure itself reflected a gain from 5.6 per cent in Q3 of 2021, the short-term trend suggests a steepening curve.

Sudbury EV supply chain conference unites stakeholder: "We need to do more"

Electric Autonomy

Sustainable radiology: Bringing climate-smart medical imaging into focus

In this session, moderated by Dr. Geraldine McGinty, two radiologists and a health care emissions researcher explore the value of data and interdisciplinary collaboration in driving climate-smart radiology practice.

Charting a course to net-zero health care emissions will require bold leadership and action from all health professionals - from the operating room to the boardroom to the radiology reading room. However, health professionals must first be engaged and educated about the climate impact of health care delivery and their roles in diminishing these impacts by advancing climate-smart health care.

Date: June 16th, 2022

Time: 11:00AM ET

REGISTER HERE

WWF-Canada and Bullfrog Power present: Where technology meets nature

Science and technology can help us tackle the planet’s most challenging environmental issues. These tools can help fill crucial data gaps, identify the most important habitats and use that knowledge to protect the diversity of species across this country.

Join this event, hosted by Bullfrog Power, where they will speak with an expert from WWF-Canada to learn about leading-edge technologies being used to support large scale action for climate and biodiversity, as well as how cross-sector partnerships like WWF-Canada and Bullfrog Power’s are crucial for tackling our planet’s largest and most complex challenges.

Date: June 16th, 2022

Time: 7:00PM ET

REGISTER HERE

Building tune-up: Existing building commissioning

The IESO’s Save on Energy team would like to invite you to a free virtual webinar, Building Tune Up: Existing Building Commissioning, on Thursday, June 23, 2022, from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT.  

EBCx experts will address: 

• Which buildings stand to benefit most from EBCx?
• When is it the right time to recommission your building?
• What actions should owners, operators, and consultants take to realize value from EBCx?
• What key processes, activities, and deliverables should you expect from commissioning providers?

Date: June 23rd, 2022

Time: 11:00AM PT

REGISTER HERE

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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