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NEW Resources - Nix the Nitrous
The Preparing Canada’s Health Care Buildings for Net-Zero team has launched three new resources to support health care facilities in addressing nitrous oxide leakage:
- Nitrous Oxide Toolkit: Central Supply System Deactivation Guideline
- Nix the Nitrous Checklist
- Decommissioning Cost Estimation Tool
These tools provide step-by-step guidance to help health care climate champions assess, deactivate, and optimize central supply systems—reducing emissions, improving efficiency, and enhancing patient safety. Resources are available in English and French.
Developed thanks to investment from the Government of Canada’s Low Carbon Economy Implementation Readiness Fund.
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News - The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care is officially a charity!
The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care is proud to announce its new status as a registered charity—a significant milestone in its 25-year journey promoting environmental sustainability in Canada’s health care sector!
This achievement was made possible thanks to the support of our network and the dedication of Professor Ann Dale and Jill Girard.
As a charity, the Coalition is poised to expand its impact. Together, let’s ensure Canada's health care facilities become leaders in sustainability, resilience, and climate action.
Make your donation today to drive meaningful change and champion a greener, healthier Canada!
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Upcoming Webinar - Virtual Roundtable on Sustainable Investment Practices
Date: June 19th, 2025
Time: 1:30–2:30 PM ET
What does it really take to integrate sustainability and environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into your foundation’s investment practices? What are the benefits? Why do it now?
We’re bringing together sector leaders to share their stories, challenges, and breakthroughs—from strategy to execution. Get a first look at our upcoming Community of Practice and hear directly from Ayo Olatunji (Canadian Medical Association Impact Inc.) and Karel Mayrand (Foundation of Greater Montréal) about their work on investment practices.
Contact ari@greenhealthcare.ca for more info.
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Upcoming Webinar - Inside the Award-Winning Hospital Retrofit: How Holy Family Hospital Achieved 75% Carbon Reduction
Date: June 17th, 2025
Time: 9:00 AM PT/ 12:00 PM ET
Join the Coalition for an in-depth look at an award-winning energy and carbon reduction retrofit at Providence Health Care’s Holy Family Hospital in Vancouver, BC.
Our panel of experts will share the story behind this groundbreaking project, exploring both the narrative and the technical innovations that led to a 75% reduction in carbon emissions between 2021 and 2023. This remarkable achievement earned the project the Best in World Award from the International Federation of Healthcare Engineering (IFHE).
| | NEW Guidebook - Sustainable Health Care: An Implementation Guide for Rheumatology | | |
Sustainable health care is a shared responsibility, and rheumatologists are in a unique position to lead the way. Whether working in hospitals or private clinics, rheumatologists make daily decisions that impact energy use, waste generation, and resource management.
This updated guidebook, developed in collaboration with the Canadian Rheumatology Association, provides actionable steps to integrate sustainability into rheumatology practices without disrupting patient care.
What changes has your practice implemented? Download the guidebook today!
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Welcome to our new series, where each newsletter will feature a key member of our leadership team! For this feature, meet Luz Paczka.
Luz is a Mexican-Colombian health designer with a background in neuroscience and psychology. By embracing her own creativity, she decided to pursue a career that bridges the gap between creative thinking and health care to address community health issues and health inequities. Luz is currently an Administrative Assistant for the Coalition's Preparing Canada’s Health Care Buildings for Net-Zero project.
"The Coalition's network keeps getting wider and stronger! In the last few years that I have been involved with the Coalition, I have been able to witness the shift in the focus to more collaborative projects, the involvement of more health disciplines, and the increasing examples of sustainable health care happening across Canada.
I feel constantly inspired by the work people share through webinars and networking hubs, and through the interactions that happen when collaborating to create new resources. I believe that such collaboration can empower and connect health workers and practitioners to – together – keep building the path towards greener Canadian health care." - Luz
Keep an eye out for our next feature!
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Estimating the urban heat-related mortality burden due to greenness: a global modelling study
THE LANCET Planetary Health
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Learn about how increasing urban greenness could significantly reduce heat-related deaths worldwide. This global modelling study evaluated the impact of boosting vegetation cover—measured using the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI)—on heat-related mortality across 11,534 urban areas from 2000 to 2019.
Researchers found that increasing EVI by 10–30% during the warm season could lower average temperatures by up to 0.19°C and reduce the proportion of heat-related deaths by up to 0.91 percentage points. The findings suggest that greening urban areas can be a vital strategy in lowering temperatures and protecting public health, particularly in regions like Southern Europe. This study highlights the importance of integrating green infrastructure into climate resilience and public health planning.
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ICN Topic Brief- nursing for planetary health and well-being
International Council of Nurses
Read to learn about the vital role nurses play in protecting human health and the planet through a planetary health approach.
As environmental degradation increasingly threatens the well-being of all life, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) has released a new topic brief, “Nursing for Planetary Health and Wellbeing,” emphasizing the urgent need for nurses to address the health impacts of climate change, pollution, biodiversity loss, and other disruptions to Earth’s natural systems.
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Living within planetary boundaries: the circular economy
Ellen MacArthur Foundation
A new video highlights how our current linear “take, make, waste” economy has contributed to the crossing of six out of nine planetary boundaries—but it also shows that this system can be reimagined. By shifting to a circular economy, we can tackle major global challenges like climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution.
The film explores real-world solutions already making a difference and demonstrates how circular approaches can positively impact all planetary boundaries—offering hope that it’s not too late to turn things around.
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Cleaning and disinfecting of health care facilities
CSA Group
Discover how updated national guidelines are shaping safer and more sustainable health care environments. The newly released second edition of CSA Z317.12:25, published by CSA Group, provides comprehensive standards for cleaning and disinfecting health care facilities.
This revision includes new sections on sustainability and innovative disinfection technologies, strengthening efforts to prevent disease transmission.
The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care was proud to contribute to this important update, which supports both patient safety and environmentally responsible practices.
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Cowichan’s new hospital achieves zero carbon
REMI Network
The Cowichan District Hospital Replacement Project is the first hospital in Canada to achieve Zero Carbon Building (ZCB) – Design certification. As B.C.’s first all-electric hospital, the new facility will be three times larger than the current one and is designed with sustainability and climate resilience in mind.
Built by the Nuts’a’maat Alliance, the project incorporates low-carbon concrete, mass timber, high-performance insulation, heat recovery systems, solar panels, and low-GWP refrigerants. This milestone reflects a growing commitment to low-carbon health care infrastructure that meets both environmental and community health needs.
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Fishermen’s Memorial Hospital earns ENERGY STAR® certification for 2024
Nova Scotia Health
Fishermen’s Memorial Hospital in Lunenburg has become the first hospital in Nova Scotia to earn the prestigious ENERGY STAR certification.
This achievement places the South Shore facility among an elite group of only seven hospitals nationwide that that have met the ENERGY STAR standard.
An ENERGY STAR-certified building is known for its outstanding energy efficiency and environmental stewardship. In 2024, the hospital achieved an ENERGY STAR score of 92, meaning it is more energy-efficient than 92 percent of similar buildings across Canada.
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QEII’s anatomical pathology team earns top environmental certification
Nova Scotia Health
The anatomical pathology team at the QEII Health Sciences Centre’s Mackenzie lab has earned the prestigious Green Level Green Lab Certification from My Green Lab, recognizing their leadership in sustainable laboratory practices. Over the past year, the team implemented improvements such as enhanced cold storage efficiency and waste reduction, making them one of the few clinical labs in Canada to achieve this top certification.
Committed to embedding sustainability into daily operations, they demonstrate that clinical excellence and environmental responsibility can go hand in hand, helping reduce health care’s environmental impact while advancing patient care.
| | NEW! RETScreen® Expert Version 9.3 | |
The RETScreen® Clean Energy Management Software Version 9.3 upgrades include a series of new energy efficient plus deep retrofit archetypes for the Virtual Energy Analyzer (VEA). In addition, key new capabilities have been added to the software to facilitate and automate the ongoing commissioning of facilities, and to help implement RETScreen as an Energy Management Information System (EMIS).
Version 9.3 of the RETScreen® Clean Energy Management Software platform is now available for download from the RETScreen website.
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Stories that Matter: Building Buy-in for a Sustainable Future
Partners in Project Green
Date: June 12th, 2025
Time: 8:30pm - 4:30pm ET
Location: Centennial College, Scarborough, ON
Partners in Project Green’s Annual Forum is a yearly opportunity for members and the community to come together to learn from fellow practitioners, hear from inspiring keynote speakers and to network with like-minded peers working to advance social and environmental sustainability initiatives.
This year, the conference theme is Stories that Matter: Building Buy-in for a Sustainable Future. Throughout the day, we will hear from keynote speakers, engage in panels with industry experts, explore Centennial College’s sustainability building features and participate in a hands-on storytelling workshop designed to equip attendees with new frameworks to guide their businesses’ impact narratives.
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Research on Drugs and Their Use in the Era of Climate Change
The Quebec Drug Research Network
Date: June 9th-10th, 2025
Location: Faculty of pharmacy of the University of Montreal
The Quebec Drug Research Network - QDRN is pleased to invite you to the 14th edition of the QDRN conference. In addition to the network-centric meetings, the different topics discussed will be:
- Creating lasting partnerships for the benefit of patients and the health system
- Building on achievements to better define the continuity of QDRN
- QDRN's new scientific platforms
This symposium will be an opportunity to create meeting points with researchers, future scientists, and research professionals in academia, industry, and government.
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8th Annual Forum on Healthcare Infrastructure, Western Canada
Canadian Institute
Dates: June 19th – 20th, 2025
The 8th Annual Forum on Healthcare Infrastructure, Western Canada, will be held in Vancouver, offering an opportunity to network with industry leaders and explore strategies for health care infrastructure design and construction.
Attendees will examine procurement models, learn about evolving standards, and meet with key decision-makers to stay at the forefront of cutting-edge health care facility delivery.
Register now to save 10% with promo code: D10-999-CCGHC25.
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2nd Forum on Healthcare Infrastructure, Atlantic Canada
Canadian Institute
Dates: July 14th - 15th, 2025
Seize the opportunity to connect with leaders in health care facilities planning, construction, design, and clinical operations at the Canadian Institute’s Forum on Healthcare Infrastructure, Atlantic Canada.
This essential event will provide critical insights into project delivery best practices, national and regional trends, and the status of major developments across Nova Scotia, PEI, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Save 10% with the CCGHC promo code: D10-999-CCGHC25
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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. Learn more and register to donate HERE.
| | 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. | | | | |
