|
|
Follow us on social media! | |
|
The Future of Battery-Powered Micro-Mobility in Health Care and Beyond
As part of the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care’s Zero-Emission Vehicle Awareness Initiative we are excited to deliver three webinars to increase public and industry awareness, knowledge and confidence in battery-powered micro-mobility (BPMM) solutions.
Join us for the second webinar in our ZEVAI project series, where we welcome representatives from the Canadian Electric Bicycle Association (CEBA), Elocity and the VCT Group to discuss the future of battery-powered micro-mobility in health care and beyond.
| |
|
Case Study: Battery-Powered Micro-Mobility in Québec
A growing number of Québec health care organisations are lending their support to the province’s forward looking stance on EVs by introducing their own transportation electrification pilot projects.
Read this case study as we introduce you to a successful employee EV engagement initiative at CISSS de l’Outaouais and share with you how the Institut national de psychiatrie légale Philippe-Pinel improved the health of their staff while reducing their environmental impact thanks to battery-power micro-mobility practices.
| |
Hospital Board Fossil Fuel Divestment – Composition of Hospital Board of Directors | |
An analysis by Ontario Hospital Association (OHA) of Toronto Hospital Boards of Directors found that 37% of board members come from the financial sector, 8.3% are corporate executives, and 7.7% are lawyers. In a skills matrix evaluation of the BODs, OHA highlights significant gaps in the fields of research, labour relations, ethics, diversity issues and information technology.
Boards have the power to hire and fire CEOs, review senior staff, guide finances, and determine priorities. They are also often the ones that approve investment initiatives for the organisations they support. Is the lack of diverse skill sets holding hospital boards back from progressive changes? Do you think it's time that BODs began to focus on members from more diverse backgrounds and skills and experience in the area of sustainability?
| | |
|
Food is Our Medicine Animated Learning
Food is Our Medicine (FIOM) is designed to introduce health care professionals and leaders to new and different ways of understanding the complex relationships between Indigenous foodways, reconciliation, healing and health care.
With FIOM Animated Learning, you will have opportunities to connect with other health care teams, learn and reflect on (de)colonization, the perspectives, cultures and foodways of various Indigenous communities, and steps you can take toward honouring Indigenous worldviews in health care. FIOM highlights and celebrates the diversity of Indigenous foods and foodways throughout the country, encourages introspection, and promotes food as medicine.
| |
|
Metrics for Change: Towards Sustainable Health Systems
This virtual course is designed to provide members of the health care community with a better understanding of how we can mobilize metrics to assess and mitigate the environmental impacts of the health sector at the micro, meso, and macro levels. The technicalities, applications, limitations, and challenges of measurement methodologies such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and carbon footprinting will be explored.
Through a mix of lectures, readings, and individual and group exercises, attendees will develop their environmental measurement literacy, learn to generate basic carbon footprints, and enhance their ability to tackle sustainability challenges in an informed and systematic way.
| |
|
MedSafer is a computer application that helps guide older adults (60 and above) and their health care practitioners through a medication review. The app is powered by science to optimize patients’ medication regimes, based on their current health priorities.
Dr. Emily McDonald, Associate Professor of Medicine at McGill University and Scientific Director of the Canadian Medication Appropriateness and Deprescribing Network (CADeN), is seeking your feedback to help improve MedSafer. As a participant, you'll have the opportunity to test the app and share your thoughts through surveys (45-60 min).
The study is funded by Health Canada and will receive ethics approval from the McGill University Health Centre. Formal recruitment will begin in February 2024. For more information, please visit the study description. If you’d like to participate, please fill out this short form.
| |
|
Right to a Healthy Environment under the CEPA
Government of Canada
Environment and Climate Change Canada and Health Canada are developing an implementation framework for a right to a healthy environment which will set out how the right, in the context of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act, 1999 (CEPA), will be considered in administering the Act, as well as its reasonable limits.
To help determine the design and potential application of the framework, they have posted a discussion document introducing key concepts and elements related to the right to a healthy environment in the context of CEPA.
| |
|
Climate change drives world to first 12-month spell over 1.5 C
Globe and Mail
The world just experienced its warmest January on record, marking the first 12-month period in which temperatures averaged more than 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial times, the European Union’s climate change monitoring service said on Thursday.
Already 2023 was the planet’s hottest year in global records going back to 1850, as human-caused climate change and El Nino, the weather pattern that warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, pushed temperatures higher.
| |
|
BC Cancer – Surrey’s Nitrile Glove Recycling Pilot Transforms Waste to Resource
Green Care
In the realm of health care, where single-use personal protective equipment (PPE) is the norm, BC Cancer – Surrey’s Radiotherapy Department is forging a greener path in waste management.
Supported by the Energy and Environmental Sustainability Team (EES), their Nitrile Glove Recycling and Reduction Pilot Project, which ran from January to August 2023, is a tangible example of how a novel approach can create lasting change.
| |
|
Public review for proposed standard CSA R117: Plastics recycling
CSA Group
The Canadian Standards Association (CSA Group) is developing a new National Standard of Canada (NSC), CSA R117 Plastics recycling: Definitions, measuring, and reporting. This standard will provide a common definitional framework and guidance for the planning, development, and implementation of programs, policies, procedures, and practices to help support the recycling sector in Canada.
To support the content of the proposed standard, the draft CSA R117 will be available online for a 60-day public review and comment period from January 17th until March 17th, 2024.
| |
|
Vancouver Coastal Health’s Healthy Public Policy Unit Champions Active Transportation in Richmond.
Green Care
| |
In the coastal city of Richmond, cycling advocates including public health secured a major victory in the form of a three-metre wide, separated bike/pedestrian path along a major artery, Steveston Highway.
At a June 2023 meeting, Richmond City Council voted in favour of investing in the world-class all-ages-and-abilities cycling infrastructure, just two weeks after voting to not proceed with its construction.
Council’s decision was partially influenced by the proactive strategies of Vancouver Coastal Health’s Healthy Public Policy Unit (VCH HPPU). When the project’s continuation came into question in February 2023, due to escalating costs, VCH HPPU’s Senior Policy Analyst was quick to identify the potential implications for Richmond’s well-being — the city would lose a major opportunity to promote wellness and create a culture of healthy, active living among people who work or live in Richmond.
| |
Release of RETScreen® Version 9.1
| |
Version 9.1 of the RETScreen® Clean Energy Management Software platform 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!
One of the latest features is an automated Net Zero Planning Tool which further enables portfolio-wide decarbonization planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting – all available within one single multilingual platform. Learn more about the new tool HERE.
|
|
EVENTS, TRAINING AND WEBINARS | |
Decarbonizing Health Care | |
On February 29, 2024 at 12:00pm EST, CHES will be hosting Part 1 of a two part Webinar Series, called Decarbonizing Health Care.
As Facility Managers know, decarbonization in health care is becoming an increasing prominent discussion amongst the government both provincial and federal, public, your community and C-suite executives. Here is an opportunity for you to gain a better understanding of decarbonization and how you can make a difference within your facility.
Trane Technologies will be presenting on assessments, strategies, market funding opportunities and success stories on decarbonization.
| |
|
Innovative Ideas to Reduce Health-care Waste – Four BC examples
From collaborating with the Binners’ Project to divert non-clinical hospital waste from the landfill, reducing plastic bag use in clinical processes, transitioning to reusable sharps containers and more, staff and health care staff across BC are tackling the challenge of health-care waste in practical and imaginative ways.
While we are learning how pollution from health care activities is negatively impacting the health of our patients and population we are also seeing innovative ways staff are looking to address it. This session highlights the diverse ways in which staff and medical staff are applying a sustainability lens to their work and the waste reduction projects that resulted.
Date: February 29th, 2024
Time: 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PST
| |
|
Roadmap to energy efficiency & low carbon - Building Performance Series Workshop #1
Energy management does not have to be complex or costly. It begins with good understanding of your building systems and how they use energy, and then identifying opportunities for improvements, and then coming up with some ways to tackle these opportunities over a period of time.
As simple as it may sound, it still requires strategies and planning. This workshop delivered by Save on Energy will introduce you to simple approaches and tools that will help you develop your own easy-to-execute plan. Incentive/rebate programs offered by energy service providers and government jurisdictions, and how to take advantage of them, will also be discussed.
Date: February 29th, 2024
Time: 9:00 am - 10:30 am EST
| |
|
ICAM 2024
The International Congress on Academic Medicine (ICAM) is the first international gathering dedicated to academic medicine. It is the place for medical educators, health research leaders and learners to meet, network, and develop new relationships and collaborations with colleagues from around the world.
Date: April 12th - 15th, 2024
Location: Vancouver, B.C
| |
|
EV & Charging Expo 2024
Electric Autonomy's EV & Charging Expo, taking place May 1 and 2, 2024 in Toronto, is designed to enable organiations to make informed decisions and take concrete actions to transition to zero-emissions transportation.
It is also a meeting place to forge new connections and partnerships to accelerate change across industry sectors.
| |
|
Dates and Topics:
-
March 20, 2024 - Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Harness Free Energy to Optimize Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) Efficiency
-
April 17, 2024 - Beyond Directions: Designing Effective Wayfinding Systems for User Experience
-
May 15, 2024 - Climate Change and Mould in Your Healthcare Facility
-
June 26, 2024 - Retrofit for Sustainability
-
October 2, 2024 - Major changes in the 2022 edition of the Infection Control during Construction, Renovation and Maintenance in Health Care Facilities Standard
-
October 30, 2024 - Applying the Z317.13:22 Standard to Renovation Projects
-
November 27, 2024 - Applying Infection Prevention and Control Practices for Hospital Maintenance Workers
| |
|
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. | | | | |
