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Happy Earth Day 2023!
Earth Day (April 22nd) is rapidly approaching and with it opportunities to engage in activities to support protection of our environment. First celebrated on April 22, 1970, Earth Day now includes a wide variety of events across the planet. A billion people in 193 countries will engage in Earth Day 2023.
Learn more about the world’s largest environmental movement at www.earthday.ca or www.earthday.org
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WEBINAR - Mitigation and Resilience: Hospitals taking climate action
Join the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, Peach Health Ontario and CASCADES as we welcome representatives from The Integrated Health and Social Services Center (CISSS), Synergie Santé Environnement (SSE) and the New St Paul’s Hospital Project, in Vancouver, B.C to describe their actions on climate change mitigation and resilience.
Details:
- CISSS of Laval, QC carried out a detailed estimate of their carbon emissions, a first in Canada. With calculations done by SSE they were able to determine their annual Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions.
- The New St. Paul’s Hospital Project, in Vancouver, B.C. is being designed specifically for sustainability, resilience and wellness with a goal of becoming as carbon neutral as possible.
Date: May 4th, 2023
Time: 9:00am PST/12:00pm EST
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NEW for 2023 - Green Office Toolkit: For clinicians and office managers
In honour of Earth Day, the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care is excited to announce the release of the new Green Office Toolkit: For clinicians and office managers.
Along with our partners across Canada we have been working diligently over the past few months to create the new Green Office Toolkit inspired by the first version released exactly five years ago, on Earth Day 2018!
In this toolkit you will find practical and affordable ideas to make eco-friendly office improvements, with the ultimate goal of helping health professionals support the health and wellbeing of patients, while respecting the foundations of health for present and future generations.
A big thank you to our partners and the experts across Canada that contributed to this exciting new resource.
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Green Hospital Scorecard survey now available en français! | |
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Thanks to our partnership with Health Canada and assistance from Synergie Santé Environnement (SSE), the Coalition is pleased to release our 2022 Green Hospital Scorecard (collecting 2021 data) survey in French!
If you work for a French-speaking hospital please reach out to autumn@greenhealthcare.ca to learn more and participate.
We would also like to remind all GHS participants to get started on their surveys before the end of April. If you have not started your survey email autumn@greenhealthcare.ca to participate.
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CHES 2023 Awards - Call for nominations
CHES is seeking nominations for the 2023 Awards. Members are reminded to nominate a deserving member or facility for one of these prestigious awards today!
Hans Burgers Award for Outstanding Contribution to Healthcare Engineering - This award is presented to a resident of Canada as a mark of recognition of outstanding achievement in the field of health care engineering.
Wayne McLellan Award of Excellence in Healthcare Facilities Management - This award recognizes facilities that have had outstanding success in the completion of a major capital project, an energy efficiency program, an environmental stewardship program, or in a team building exercise.
Deadline for submissions: May 15th, 2023
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Call for Nominations - Nature Inspiration Awards
In 2014, the Canadian Museum of Nature launched the Nature Inspiration Awards to recognize individuals and organisations that are making a positive contribution to protecting and sustaining the natural world.
This national program highlights outstanding leadership of individuals, not-for-profits, businesses and community groups whose innovative projects are making an impact and inspiring others to care for nature in their community, across the country or perhaps around the world.
Both winners and finalists receive an insignia to use as a visible accreditation to support ongoing efforts in current and future initiatives.
Deadline for submissions: May 23rd, 2023
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Summer Institute on Peace, Health, and Sustainability | |
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McGill is pleased to partner with the Pegasus Institute to offer courses for students interested in how migration, conflict, and the environment shape human health. Courses will explore connections between larger events of the world and the health of populations and individuals.
Participants are encouraged to take as many courses, across Institutes, as fits their schedule. A certificate of participation will be issued for each course.
Dates: May 23rd - June 9th, 2023
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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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Ontario Hospital Sustainability Strategies | |
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Many Ontario hospitals are prioritizing sustainability, demonstrating their commitment to the health of both people and the planet. Below you can find information from those who are sharing the steps they have taken to engage in this important work, publishing their centres' current emissions, targets, and the philosophy, people, and initiatives which will help them to reduce their environmental impact. What are you waiting for?
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How Canadian hospitals are decreasing carbon emissions
CMAJ News
In 2021, Canada joined more than 50 nations in committing to achieving low-carbon, sustainable health systems, but so far, much of the progress towards that goal has come from the voluntary efforts of individual physicians.
Myles Sergeant, a family physician in Hamilton, OnN, launched one such effort to cultivate partnerships on climate action across health care facilities, called PEACH.
He was inspired by a paper published in The Lancet Planetary Health which showed that more than 60% of the emissions generated by England’s National Health Service were related to the supply chain.
Looking further into the issue, PEACH developed a checklist of the 20 most impactful actions hospitals could take to reduce their carbon footprint – in some cases, at low cost or savings.
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Climate change and radiology: Impetus for change and a toolkit for action
Radiological Society of North America
This special report discusses the importance of climate change for health care and radiology. The impact of climate change on human health and health equity, the contribution of health care and medical imaging to the climate crisis, and the impetus for change within radiology to create a more sustainable future are covered.
The authors focus on actions and opportunities to address climate change in our role as radiologists. A toolkit highlights actions we can take toward a more sustainable future, linking each action with the expected impact and outcome.
This includes actions we can take in our daily lives, in radiology departments and professional organisations, and in our relationships with vendors and industry partners.
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Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation playbook
CASCADES
Greenhouse Gas Emissions Estimation in Canadian Healthcare provides an overview of how greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are measured in health care and information on the current state of GHG emissions estimation in health care organisations across Canada. It also provides guidance and resources to support health systems and care organisations with key considerations for starting, continuing, or expanding GHG emissions estimation in their organisations.
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The Academic Health Institutions' Declaration on Planetary Health
The Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada
The Academic Health Institutions’ Declaration on Planetary Health calls on all academic health institutions throughout the world to take immediate action to halt both the negative impact of their activities on the planet’s natural systems, and to institute adaptive and regenerative measures, including through advocacy.
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Prescribing Nature: What's the science behind park prescriptions?
Royal Botanical Gardens
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Can patients benefit if doctors prescribe time in nature?
Dr. Melissa Lem, director and founder of Park Prescriptions for the BC Parks Foundation, and Dr. Myles Sergeant, founding medical director of the Shelter Health Network, Executive Director of the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, came together on March 23rd, 2023 for the Royal Botanical Garden's 9th biennial Patrick Colgan Memorial Lecture.
Watch the lecture recording to hear their experiences and the connections between the environment and our health.
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Hamilton Health Science (HHS) food pantry program supports patients/families facing food insecurity
Hamilton Health Science
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Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) has started a food bank-type program at McMaster Children’s Hospital (MCH) for patients and their families facing food insecurity. The Food Pantry pilot program launched on April 3 and is available to families visiting the hospital’s emergency department (ED) and Children’s Exercise & Nutrition Centre (CENC).
“Our Food Pantry won’t solve food insecurity because that’s a much larger societal issue, but it does allow our teams to support patients and their families in the short term as partners in helping their children get better,” says Jennifer Fabe, an MCH registered dietitian and clinical specialist.
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Energy policies are key to helping meet ambitious emissions commitments
Georgetown Climate Centre
Health care delivery organisations – hospitals, clinics, and other institutions that provide health care services to patients – occupy a unique position in the climate fight: they care for people whose health is adversely impacted by climate change, and can also be a part of the solution by setting and meeting ambitious goals for reducing climate pollution.
The Georgetown Climate Center today released a new report finding that health care delivery organisations have a strong potential to help the U.S. meet emissions targets by advancing efforts to decarbonize the electricity that is consumed at their facilities and used to produce thousands of products and services in their supply chains.
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Helping create a resilient electricity grid for the future
CSA Group
The development and implementation of electricity system standards have made life safer and easier for people. Most Canadians don’t think twice when they turn on their toaster or plug in their mobile device. They rightfully assume the electricity they need to power their lives is readily available.
The electricity sector is planning and preparing for the impacts of climate change, ensuring systems are adapting to withstand extreme weather, warmer temperatures, and other impacts related to climate change.
Longer-term shifts in climate patterns will impact system and operational planning. Advancements in scientific data are required to update industry design standards to maintain the resilience of utility infrastructure in response to climate change.
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The e-mobility customer experience will shape the grid of the future. Are utilities ready? | |
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Canada has many drivers of electrification. The evolving energy customers, whose lives are in the process of being reoriented around EVs and e-mobility, is emerging as an unstoppable force.
Our most recent energy transition report finds that 50 per cent of residential customers surveyed are interested in monitoring energy usage, reducing environmental impact and purchasing new energy products and services. It’s a trend that has increased in the past year. Meanwhile, the number of consumers considering an EV has doubled in the same period. Fifty-three per cent of Canadian consumers are interested in purchasing an EV in the next three years.
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Zero-Emission Vehicle Resources | |
Did you know the Coalition has a webpage dedicated to providing information on zero-emission vehicles?
View the page to access buyers guides, explore incentives and rebates, infrastructure funding, charging information and maps as well as interesting reports.
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EVENTS, TRAINING AND WEBINARS | |
Planetary Health and Sustainability launch event | |
Join the Planetary Health and Sustainability launch event at Children’s Hospital, London Health Sciences on Friday, April 21st, 10:30 am to 12:00 pm in the B1 atrium. Come for cookies & coffee, and stay to hear their commitment to action, including their Nature for Healing program, and learn about the Children’s Environmental Health Clinic Ontario (ChEHC ON).
If you can't make it in person, you can join the event virtually from 10:00am - 11:00 am! Click HERE to join.
Please also take 10 minutes of your time to fill out the Planetary Health Survey. They will use these results in their rigorous QI processes to shape their actions, build the program & connect to those who want to be involved. All staff, physician, patient, family and community voices are welcome!
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Transitioning to zero-emissions vehicles may be one of the biggest challenges that organisations will face in the coming years.
Get your business ready for the EV transformation by learning about the
hardware, technology and funding supports available to you at Electric Autonomy’s EV & Charging Expo.
Test drive and discover the latest commercial electric vehicles and charging solutions. Learn from experts in tailored work sessions. And discover suppliers who can help with your organisation’s EV transformation. The time to understand electric vehicles and their charging needs is now.
Dates: May 17th - 18th, 2023
Location: Encare Centre, Toronto
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Reducing exposure to toxic plasticisers in PVC medical devices
This webinar will highlight the importance of phasing out PVC as the best course of action to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals in terms of plasticisers during product use and throughout the entire PVC lifecycle, from production to disposal.
Themes from Health Care Without Harm Europe's upcoming report on PVC will be discussed.
Date: May 15th, 2023
Time: 4:30pm -5:30pm CEST
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Planetary Health in Action: Innovation examples from around the world
Join the Global Village Speaker Series for an exciting interactive conversation with Moderator, Dr. Laurie Houston and Dr. Adesh Sundaresan who over the past year has had the unique opportunity to interview and learn about many of the pioneering projects in health care sustainability from across the globe.
Dates: April 22nd, 2023
Location: 6:00 am PST
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The journey to a reduced-carbon future
As global industries look to reduce their carbon emissions, they turn more often to electrical sources to supply their energy needs.
This has increased the demand for lower carbon energy sources for both primary and emergency power. In this webinar, speakers will discuss leading approaches in meeting energy demands.
Dates: May 18th, 2023
Location: 10:00 am CT
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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. | | | | |
