The Green Digest

Canadian Coalition and leading Canadian Health Care Organizations Win International Awards for using less energy, better resiliency and climate leadership!

The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care has won international recognition on climate leadership for the development of the Health Care Climate Change Resiliency Toolkit. For more information on this toolkit and how to engage your facility in using the toolkit, please contact Linda Varangu at Linda@greenhealthcare.ca. See a list of all 2016 Global Climate Champions here.

St. Joseph’s General Hospital cashes out on energy audit. Earlier this month, St. Joseph's General Hospital at Elliot Lake received a rebate cheque for $3, 205 from Hydro One, covering 50% of a recent energy audit. The audit, performed by Healthcare Energy Leaders Ontario (HELO), assessed the hospital's energy usage and identified opportunities for environmental and financial savings. To find out how HELO can provide your facility with an affordable, fully certified energy audit, contact HELO Lead JJ Knott at jj.knott@greenhealthcare.ca.

Celebrate Nutrition Month with the Blended Burger! Eating too much red meat can have health consequences and has negative impacts on the environment, causing air and water pollution that contribute to climate change. The James Beard Foundation has developed an innovative strategy to reduce consumption of meat while still enjoying the foods we love: mixing in veggies. Enter the Blended Burger. A blended burger combines mushrooms (or other plant-based ingredients) with ground beef (or other ground meat) to reduce the total meat in the burger while improving its flavor. Health Care Without Harm is bringing this strategy to the health sector as a complement to its “Less Meat, Better Meat” approach. Read More.

Hospital food services moving from high-fat, high-calorie and snacky to healthy. Out with the fried, unhealthy food. In with nutritious, low-fat, cholesterol-free and heart-healthy food.
That's what hospitals want patients, employees and visitors to believe. On the whole, over the past five years, it is mostly true. But not all hospital food is created equal for Michigan's 130 hospitals. Read More.

Hygiene's technological revolution . Many h ealth care institutions are implementing innovative technologies to help better manage upkeep. Recently, UC Irvine Health, Stanford Medical Center and Augusta Medical Center have embraced a smart technology to improve challenges that centre administrators face. New sensor-equipped dispensers in washrooms that process data regarding supply levels keep staff informed on refill needs for items like paper towels, hand soap and hand sanitizer. The system also monitors traffic to each location, so environmental services staff can plan cleaning routes more efficiently. Because these rooms now require fewer checks, staff members are freed up to focus their efforts on areas in greater need of upkeep, such as patient rooms. Read the full article.

News and Events

Green Hospital Scorecard Webinar for Small, Northern and Rural Hospitals

The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care will be hosting a special informational webinar on the Green Hospital Scorecard (GHS) with a special focus on small, northern, and rural hospitals. The Green Hospital Scorecard is a benchmarking tool for your hospital’s energy, waste and water practices and provides information on your facility’s environmental performance relative to peers.

This FREE informational webinar is open to staff at any Ontario hospital interested in the Green Hospital Scorecard program. The webinar will review how to fill out, save, share, and submit the survey, highlight unique reporting challenges for small, northern and rural hospitals, and will introduce the newly developed Green Hospital Scorecard Lite for facilities with limited access to recycling.

The webinar is Thursday, January 26, 2017 from 1-2 PM EST.

To join the webinar and view the slideshow, click this link: https://join.me/429-135-710

To access the audio, there are two options:

1. Call in by phone using a local call-in number from the list below, and enter the conference ID 429-135-710#

Canada - Ottawa +1.613.699.9318
Canada - Toronto +1.647.977.2648
Canada - Brantford +1.226.401.9363

2. Call in via the internet by clicking the phone icon in the window at https://join.me/429-135-710. You will require a headset.

If you have any questions about the Green Hospital Scorecard Program, please contact Samantha at samantha@greenhealthcare.ca.

Do you have a photo or story you would like featured in The Green Digest? Send to samantha@greenhealthcare.ca.