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Webinar: Creating Space and Healing Climate Emotions for Planetary Health
As we continue to see communities and health systems across Canada being affected by climate change, many individuals including health care workers are dealing with feelings of grief, depression, anxiety and hopelessness as it relates to our environment. As climate change-related impacts increase we are seeing the instances of these feelings intensify and rightfully so!
Join the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care and PEACH Health Ontario as we welcome speakers Anna Gunz, Kady Cowan and Nate Charach to discuss how we can help individuals express these feelings to transform them into planetary healing.
Date: November 8th, 2023
Time: 9am PT/11pm PT
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Look Ma - No Gloves! Safely addressing unnecessary glove use
Join us for the first webinar of the CASCADES and Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care "Addressing Unnecessary Glove Use" series where we delve into the various approaches employed by organisations to tackle the issue of unnecessary glove use.
Manufactured from synthetic materials such as latex, nitrile or vinyl, single-use gloves have a financial cost as well as an environmental and health impact.
Representatives from the NHS, British Columbia and Quebec will provide an in-depth look into the genesis of their groundbreaking initiatives to promote the appropriate use of gloves in health care settings.
Date: November 14th, 2023
Time: 8am PT/11am ET
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Achieving carbon neutral health care: Greening the supply chain
Join the Green Is Health MIG, the Canadian Association of Physicians for the
Environment, and PEACH Health Ontario for an enlightening panel presentation about what can and should be done to improve our supply chain emissions.
Panelists include: Bob Willard, innovator of sustainable procurement in Canada, Sunita Chander, Chief of Strategy, Programs and Partnerships of Supply Ontario, Karen Bellair, CEO and president of Services, and Robin Simmons, Procurement Lead, Hamilton Health Sciences.
Date: November 16th, 2023
Time: 5pm PST/8pm EST
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A Canadian health sector approach to environmental sustainability
Canada is warming at a rate more than twice that of the global average, with Canada’s north warming at three to four times that rate. Canada’s commitment to planetary health, climate-change resiliency and preparedness has been increasing steadily over the past several years.
This article sheds light on the Canadian health system’s interest in environmental sustainability and efforts to build a more climate-resilient health care system. The authors will delve into key motivators, national initiatives, and the role the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care plays in driving sustainable health care practices.
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Seeking a Volunteer for Social Media Marketing | |
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The Coalition is looking for a passionate and creative volunteer who wants to help forward our mission of a climate resilient, net-zero health system by enhancing our social media presence.
This volunteer opportunity will consist of a few hours a week assisting the Project Coordinator in the development of social media campaigns to promote Coalition events and resources.
Experience with social media marketing is preferred but not required. Email autumn@greenhealthcare.ca to apply today.
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Impact Investing - Which health care organisations are on board? | | |
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The Canadian Medical Association has divested from fossil fuels, and the Registered Nurses Association of Ontario (RNAO) also does not invest in fossil fuels. RNAO has also recently written an open letter to its pension fund asking for full divestment and has started a petition asking the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan (HOOPP) to phase out its fossil fuel investments.
In their open letter they state: "Together, we urge HOOPP to phase out by 2025 its existing investments in fossil fuels – coal, oil and gas, and including extraction, processing and transportation – as well as related infrastructure such as pipelines, and to immediately stop any new investments in these portfolios. Continuing to invest our collective retirement savings in the industry that is the single largest contributor to the escalating climate crisis is not good for the planet – nor for our pensions."
Which hospital will be the first in Canada to embrace impact investing?
If you are a foundation board member who wants to talk about impact investing, we encourage you to contact us HERE.
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CHES Ontario - Call for Abstracts
CHES Ontario is seeking abstract submissions for their 2024 conference being held May 26- 28, 2024 at Blue Mountain Resort (Collingwood, ON).
Preference will be given to topics that work with the theme "Embracing Change and Transformation in Healthcare Facilities." Topics may include infection control, energy and sustainability, capital planning, project management, wayfinding, illumination, electrical requirements for HCF, preventative maintenance or others with an eye toward change and resilience in Healthcare Facilities. The hottest, current relevant topics will be selected.
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Leadership for change: Toward sustainable health systems
This upcoming course delivered by CASCADES aims to strengthen capacity for change-oriented health system leadership in the face of profound environmental and sustainability challenges. Through pre-work, four interactive sessions, and debriefing opportunities, we interrogate the why and how of incremental, reform-oriented, and transformational change for sustainability in the health sector.
Course dates/times:
- January 23 & 30 and February 6 & 13, 2024 via Zoom
- Tuesdays at 9:00am–12:00pm PT | 12:00–3:00pm ET | 1:00–4:00pm AT
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Earth's 'vital signs' worse than at any time in human history, scientists say
The Gaurdian
Earth’s “vital signs” are worse than at any time in human history, an international team of scientists has warned, meaning life on the planet is in peril.
Their report found that 20 of the 35 planetary vital signs they use to track the climate crisis are at record extremes. As well as greenhouse gas emissions, global temperature and sea level rise, the indicators also include human and livestock population numbers.
Many climate records were broken by enormous margins in 2023, including global air temperature, ocean temperature and Antarctic sea ice extent, the researchers said. The highest monthly surface temperature ever recorded was in July and was probably the hottest the planet has been in 100,000 years.
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Montreal joins growing wave of cities in banning natural gas
Canadas National Observer
Another Canadian city has taken the step to get natural gas, a planet-warming fossil fuel, out of buildings.
This week, Montreal announced it will no longer allow gas in new buildings of up to three storeys as of October 2024, and ban the fossil fuel as of April 2025 in larger new builds. The ban will include gas-based heating and hot water systems, as well as items like barbecues and stoves.
In Canada, fossil fuel-based heating systems for furnaces and water in homes and buildings make up 13 per cent of the country’s total greenhouse gas emissions.
Natural gas is made mostly of methane, which is responsible for approximately a quarter of global warming and is over 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2).
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Time to treat the climate and nature crisis as one indivisible global health emergency
CMAJ
Over 200 health journals call on the United Nations, political leaders, and health professionals to recognize that climate change and biodiversity loss are one indivisible crisis and must be tackled together to preserve health and avoid catastrophe.
The world is currently responding to the climate crisis and the nature crisis as if they were separate challenges. This is a dangerous mistake.
The 28th Conference of the Parties (COP) on climate change is about to be held in Dubai, while the 16th COP on biodiversity is due to be held in Turkey in 2024. The research communities that provide the evidence for the 2 COPs are unfortunately largely separate, but they were brought together for a workshop in 2020 when they concluded that, “Only by considering climate and biodiversity as parts of the same complex problem … can solutions be developed that avoid maladaptation and maximize the beneficial outcomes."
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Global efforts show progress on plastic pollution is possible- but the world remains off track
UN Environment Programme
The biggest global voluntary effort to tackle plastic pollution and waste shows it is possible to make progress on a pressing environmental issue, yet tougher measures are now needed to curb the crisis, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation.
Since 2018, more than 1,000 organisations have given their backing to the Global Commitment, led by the Foundation in partnership with the UN Environment Programme, to stop plastic packaging from becoming waste.
Over the past five years, business signatories – representing 20% of the world’s plastic packaging industry – have significantly outperformed their peers when it comes to taking positive action to tackle plastic waste.
However, with a large part of industry not yet taking action, and business signatories likely to miss key 2025 goals.
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Canada Greener Homes Grant
The Canada Greener Homes Grant is funded and administered by Natural Resources Canada.
Eligible Canadian homeowners can receive up to $5,600 back to cover a portion of the costs associated with completing energy-efficiency home upgrades (up to $5,000 for completing eligible retrofits and up to $600 toward the cost of required pre- and post-retrofit EnerGuide home evaluations).
To participate, homeowners must register online on the Canada Greener Homes portal. Additional requirements apply for homeowners in Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. Funding is limited to $2.6 billion over 7 years or 700,000 grants.
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Tapping sewage for clean energy is the ultimate circular-economy play
Corporate Knights
Noventa Energy, founded in 2018 by long-time Enwave CEO Dennis Fotinos, has partnered with the City of Toronto and Toronto Western Hospital, a sprawling 118-year-old health care facility to build a sewage waste heat recovery system that captures the heat from sewage and uses it to warm or cool the air inside.
The heart of the project is a cutting-edge heat exchanger from Huber, a German firm, that takes the thermal energy out of the sewage, concentrates it, and then uses it to replace the natural gas Toronto Western burns to run its massive boilers and chillers.
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CEM Engineering Sunnybrook 8MW Project | |
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, a leading health care institution, has taken a significant stride towards sustainability and energy efficiency with the successful completion of an 8MW Combined Heat and Power (CHP) facility.
This cutting-edge project, implemented under the Save on Energy/Process and System Upgrade Initiative (SOE/PSUI), features a natural gas-fired Gas Turbine Generator (GTG). By generating both electricity and thermal energy simultaneously, this CHP facility will provide numerous benefits to Sunnybrook, including reduced energy costs, increased operational efficiency, and a smaller carbon footprint.
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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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Setting a course for sustainable health care: Strategic planning and roadmap development
Climate change and wider environmental degradation pose accelerating and complex threats for 21st-century health systems—and these modern health systems themselves are significant contributors to global carbon emissions, resource extraction and pollution.
Increasingly, the executives, boards, and health care staff leading Canada’s health systems are recognizing the need to address these challenges. With the recent release of Interior Health’s Climate Change and Sustainability Roadmap, Vancouver Coastal Health’s Planetary Health Roadmap, and Fraser Health’s Planetary Health Strategy, these health authorities are embedding health-focused sustainability and climate action in their organisational strategy.
In this webinar, hear from teams at each of these health authorities as they share their respective strategic plans and the processes that lead to them.
Date: November 21st
Time: 9am PT/12pm ET
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Methane Mitigation and Health Briefing Series: A three-part exploration
The Global Climate and Health Alliance invites you to a series of short briefings on mitigating methane and the benefits for health, in the Energy, Food System, and Waste sectors.
Learn more about the need to rapidly drive down emissions of this powerful, short-lived climate pollutant, and about the health benefits, in the Energy, Food, and Waste sectors of strategies to reduce methane. Reducing methane emissions offers a quick win against climate change and important wins for people’s health, a chance to make near term progress while longer term transformations are under way.
The next and final instalment in the series will be presented on November 7th.
You can access the other two presentation recordings on their website using the link below.
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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. | | | | |
