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Thank you for joining us!
A huge thank you to everyone who attended our Toronto Climate Week event — Sustainable by Design: Health Care Innovations for a Warming World.
We’re so grateful to our generous host, Women's College Hospital, our event sponsor, Deloitte, and all of our inspiring speakers who made the day such a success. Stay tuned for our event recap coming soon! In the meantime, check out some of the great photos from the event.
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Join the Circular Clinical Care: Single-Use Plastics Reduction Project Community!
Stay up to date on our work to reduce single-use plastics in health care!
Sign up for the Circular Clinical Care: Single-Use Plastics Reduction newsletter for project updates, industry news, and other fun insights from our team.
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Webinar - Greening our GIM Wards... Where can we improve sustainability and grow?
Date: October 10, 2025
Time: 9am PT/ 12pm ET
General internal medicine wards play a central role in health care, and with that comes an opportunity to lead in sustainability.
In this Cut the Carbon: Beyond the OR session, Dr. Zahira Khalid, Associate Professor and GIM Residency Program Director at McMaster University, and Dr. Owen Luo, Internal Medicine Resident at McGill University, will discuss practical ways to reduce the environmental footprint of hospital care.
They will also explore the CISM Climate-Conscious Choosing Wisely Recommendations, showcasing evidence-based strategies to support a culture of climate-conscious care, as well as CCGHC's and PEACH Health Ontario’s “Greening the Wards” guidebook. Join us to explore how small, achievable changes can drive big impacts for both patients and the planet.
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Training Event - Energy Benchmarking to Performance Analytics: Integrating Energy Star Portfolio Manager with RETScreen Expert
Date: October 10, 2025
Time: 9am PT/ 12pm ET
Join us for an insightful webinar exploring two powerful tools for energy management in the Health Care sector: ENERGY STAR® Portfolio Manager® and RETScreen® Clean Energy Management Software. Learn how to benchmark building performance, track energy and water usage, and evaluate the financial viability of energy projects. Whether you're a facility manager, energy analyst, or sustainability professional, this session will provide practical guidance on integrating these platforms to support data-driven decision-making and drive energy savings.
This webinar is part of the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care's Preparing Canada’s Health Care Buildings for Net-Zero project, made possible with investment from the Government of Canada's Low Carbon Economy Implementation Readiness Fund.
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Help Us Build a Greener Health System
The Coalition is now a registered charity—marking a major milestone in its 25-year mission to advance sustainability in health care. Donate today to help build a greener, healthier, and more climate-resilient Canada.
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Register for the Food is Our Medicine Learning Journey
Nourish Leadership
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Food profoundly impacts health and well-being, while also holding the potential to improve health equity. Nourish’s Food is Our Medicine guides health care providers on the importance of including culturally mindful food choices and Indigenous foodways into health care menus as a comforting way of advancing Reconciliation.
Nourish invites health care organisations to make a commitment to decolonizing menus and health care operations by enrolling your team in the Food is Our Medicine learning journey running October 2025 – June 2026.
Join Nourish in this transformative learning journey to create a more equitable and nourishing world. Registration closes on October 24, 2025.
| | Canadian College of Health Leaders National Awards Program - Call for Nominations | |
Recognize and promote your outstanding leaders and programs!
The Canadian College of Health Leaders is inviting nominations for the 2026 National Awards Program.
The awards recognize the importance of leadership, commitment and performance. This is a great opportunity to recognize and promote the outstanding leaders and programs in your organisation. Award recipients will be recognized during the College’s 2026 Honouring Health Leadership event. The date and format of this celebration will be announced later this year.
Individual awards nomination deadline: November 30, 2025.
Team and organisational awards nomination deadline: February 1, 2026.
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Climate resilience as a strategic lever for long-term health care sustainability: a narrative review
British Journal of Anaesthesia
Major climate events are known to impact health care delivery, and the projected climate change scenarios can pose an increasing challenge to the stability of an already strained health system. Current carbon mitigation efforts are too slow to counter climate change and extreme weather events. With a projected increase in major climate emergencies and a lack of significant actions to revert the course, building resilient health system needs to be a priority.
This narrative review aims to outline the concept and significance of climate resilience in the health system, focusing on anaesthesia. We provide a context and framework for building climate-resilient anaesthesia practice for clinical implementation in the global health system on four aspects of the building blocks of the framework, namely, leadership and governance, health system strengthening, health services delivery and research, education and quality improvement.
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Webinar: Integrating Health into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs)
World Health Organization (WHO)
Climate change poses a serious and escalating threat to public health and health care systems. Yet, the health sector accounts for 4.6% of global emissions. By embedding health considerations within Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), we can both strengthen health sector mitigation and adaptation efforts and fully capture the health benefits of climate action across all sectors. A resilient health sector is critical for building adaptive capacity and responding to climate-related public health emergencies and extreme weather events.
This webinar was a focused training session designed to support meaningful integration of health into NDCs. Using the WHO guidance Quality criteria for integrating health into Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), the webinar featured presentations from experts, real-world case studies from countries, and a Q&A session.
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Planetary health is public health
Healthy Debate
In this opinion piece Trevor Hancock and Tim Takaro discuss how Human health is inseparable from planetary health: destabilizing Earth’s systems threatens clean air, water, food, climate, and thus public well-being.
They argue how the health sector must protect ecological foundations, as crossing planetary boundaries heightens risks—especially for marginalized communities.
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Leveraging collaboration and systems thinking to build a climate-resilient health system in Canada
Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences
In this blog, MSc in Global Healthcare Leadership students Dr Bhavini Gohel and Sara Turcotte draw on their learning from the programme to explore how collaboration and systems thinking can drive climate-resilient, low-carbon health care in Canada.
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Sustainability as a Baseline in Health Care Facilities
Healthcare Facilities Today
Sustainability is no longer just an option in health care facilities. Rising expectations from patients, staff and regulators, coupled with financial and climate pressures, are pushing hospitals to embed sustainable practices into every stage of planning and design. Healthcare Facilities Today recently spoke with Christy Lindsey, global head of health care advisory at consulting firm SJ, about ways health systems can balance costs, build resilience and learn from global best practices.
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Small Containers,Big Impact: Planetary Health in Action
Santé Bruyère Health
At Bruyère Health, caring for people includes caring for the planet. As part of its planetary health priority, the organisation launched a reusable food container pilot with Friendlier at its Market Site.
Expanded to two sites, the program now serves about 500 people daily, has recovered over 900 containers, diverted 53 kg of plastic, and prevented 153 kg of emissions—advancing sustainability and healthier communities.
| | NEW! RETScreen® Expert Version 9.4 | |
The RETScreen® Clean Energy Management Software Version 9.4 upgrades include automated weather data services. Streaming data is now available from Copernicus – European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF – global coverage) and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC – ground weather stations across Canada). Both daily and hourly data are available. These new weather data services in RETScreen provide additional sources of surface meteorology data to the global data already provided directly in the software through our collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Version 9.4 of the RETScreen® Clean Energy Management Software platform is now available for download from the RETScreen website.
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Designing Effective Procurement Models for Decarbonization
Greening Health Care
Date: October 15, 2025
Time: 9:30am PT/ 12:30pm ET
This webinar will focus on crafting procurement models that align with decarbonization objectives in health care facilities.
Key topics include setting clear decarbonization targets from the outset, adopting prescriptive scoping methods to replace end-of-life assets with energy-efficient solutions, and leveraging financial models like pain-share, gain-share to drive stakeholder alignment.
The session will also cover best practices for monitoring progress through Measurement and Verification (M&V) and savings tracking, ensuring that decarbonization goals are met while maintaining transparency and accountability.
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Planetary Health Emergency: The Health Benefits of Climate Action
Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment
Dates: October 25, 2025
Time: 8:10am-4:05pm PST
Location: Virtual
The planetary health emergency is at our doorstep - but so are the opportunities for action. As health professionals, we have a vital role to play in advancing both human and planetary health.
Join this annual conference to hear from experts leading local initiatives, connect with peers, and gain practical ideas for action in your own context. This conference is open to all health professionals. We hope you leave feeling inspired and equipped to support a healthier, more sustainable future for all.
Can't attend live on October 25? All lectures will be recorded and available to view on-demand for up to 3 months after the event.
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Communicate and engage with patients, caregivers and communities
CASCADES
Date: October 23, 2025
Time: 9am PT/ 12pm ET
Community collaboration and integration are crucial for building resilient health systems, especially in the context of climate-related challenges. Engaging patients, caregivers, and communities in the design and delivery of health care services improves quality of care and can advance a more sustainable system.
By leveraging local knowledge, health systems can design preparedness strategies that are context-specific and address the real needs of the community. Meaningful partnership is essential to reducing environmental impact and ensuring that patient and community voices are central in shaping the care they receive.
This webinar in the Leadership and strategy for sustainable health systems series is the seventh of seven events highlighting seven organisational practices to advance strategic planning for sustainable health care.
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Making Every Drop Count: Five Years of Using Blood Wisely
Choosing Wisely Canada
Date: October 29, 2025
Time: 9am PT/ 12pm ET
Up to 30% of blood is transfused inappropriately in Canadian hospitals despite best evidence. In 2020, Using Blood Wisely was launched to address this challenge, setting national appropriateness benchmarks and supporting hospitals to improve transfusion practices.
On October 29, Choosing Wisely Talks will bring together hospitals and system leaders to discuss lessons learned from five years of Using Blood Wisely. Speakers will share effective interventions, overcoming barriers, and the broader improvements inspired by participating in the program.
Join Choosing Wisely Canada on the five-year anniversary of the launch of Using Blood Wisely to celebrate an important milestone and to look ahead at the future of transfusion appropriateness in Canada.
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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. | | | | |
