The Green Digest
A Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care Initiative
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RETScreen is a Clean Energy Management Software system for energy efficiency, renewable energy and co generation project feasibility analysis as well as ongoing energy performance analysis. Learn more
HERE
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THANK YOU to all our front line health care workers and everyone who is working so hard to ensure Canada's health system remains ready to deliver the best care possible during these very challenging times.
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Call for Awards and Recognition Sponsors
The Annual Canadian Health Care Sustainability Awards
are provided to health care organisations that participate in the Green Hospital Scorecard program, the only comprehensive health care benchmarking tool in Canada that enables health care organisations to compare their sustainability performance with their peers as well as track their own performance over time.
Over 100 health care organisations submit standardized data on ten areas of sustainability. Categories for this year’s awards include:
- Canadian Green Hospital of the Year
- Canadian Health Care Sustainability Leadership Award
- Canadian Energy Management Award
- Canadian Energy Behaviour Award
- Canadian Water Management and Conservation Award
- Canadian Waste Management Award
Sustainability Champions
We know that private sector companies also play an important role in championing sustainability, since hospitals’ supply chains represent the largest component of their carbon footprint. If a company has made a corporate commitment to sustainability, we want to recognize them as a Sustainability Champion. CCGHC Sustainability Champions often sponsor our publications, educational events, case studies and sustainability programs.We are not able to promote one product over another, however, we can play a valuable role in communicating sustainable business practice among health care organisations and their suppliers. For more information contact:
neil.ritchie@greenhealthcare.ca
Deadline
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In the interests of public safety, please follow health agency guidelines to help keep us all healthy. For more information and prevention tips, visit the Government of Canada's COVID-19 site
HERE
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Put clean energy at the heart of stimulus plans to counter the coronavirus crisis
The coronavirus is turning into an unprecedented international crisis, with serious repercussions for people’s health and economic activity. The impact of the coronavirus around the world and the resulting turmoil in global markets are dominating global attention. As governments respond to these interlinked crises, they must not lose sight of a major challenge of our time: clean energy transitions. Read
MORE
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B.C. health care workers using loaned car-share vehicles to travel safely during COVID-19
Evo Car Share made 250 vehicles available free of charge, starting in late March — currently all are in use or being assigned. Since late March,
Evo Car Share
, a company owned by the British Columbia Automobile Association, has been loaning its vehicles — free of charge — to health-care workers. “Everyone’s doing their best to meet their mobility needs, but the reality is there are challenges, such as reduced transit services, which can make it harder for frontline workers, particularly shift workers, to find reliable transport,” says Tai Silvey, BCAA’s vice-president of Evo Car Share. More
HERE
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COVID-19 can be spread by building ventilation, argue Canadian researchers working on HVAC fix
A group of Alberta researchers are working on ways that buildings could change their HVAC set-ups to curb the risk of infection. The prevailing view is that the novel coronavirus is transmitted only by close contact with relatively heavy droplets. But for a group of mechanical engineers at the University of Alberta, the finding was no surprise. In their world, they say, it’s well known that building ventilation systems are efficient disseminators of viruses and other pathogens, and they believe the COVID-19 bug is no exception. More
HERE.
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Decontaminating high-risk patient settings
Assessing sources of contamination within care settings that serve vulnerable patients - The health care environment includes not just solid surfaces, but also air and water. For each of these aspects, various departments must collaborate to ensure that correct processes and products are employed to reduce contamination and infection risk. Environmental contamination poses the greatest risk to patients who are more vulnerable to infection such as those with suppressed immune systems and those with indwelling devices or surgical incisions, which create potential portals of entry for pathogens. More
HERE
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He cleans 'COVID rooms' in the ICU — and keeps dying patients company
He can't see it but JR LeBlanc knows he's coming into contact with COVID-19 every shift. When the pandemic began, LeBlanc was tasked with cleaning his hospital's ICU and what he calls the "COVID rooms", where people with confirmed cases stay. First, he tears the curtains down. Then he deep cleans the walls, beds, wires, the washroom and every counter top.
"It's not easy for anybody to do this job," said LeBlanc, a cleaner at Southlake Regional Health Centre, in Newmarket, Ont., north of Toronto. "I'm scared ... but I also make sure that I wear what I'm supposed to wear and I focus on what I'm doing." More from CBC.CA
HERE.
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What a sustainable circular economy would look like
Post-coronavirus, the world requires a truly circular economy to deliver long-term sustainable benefits, writes Anne Velenturf and Phil Purnell from the University of Leeds. More than
100 billion tonnes
of materials entered the global economy in 2017 to generate power, build infrastructure and homes, produce food, and provide consumer goods such as clothes and phones. Some estimates suggest that
99% of the things
people buy are discarded within six months of purchasing without the material being recovered. That’s because we have a
linear economy
. It works by extracting resources and manufacturing products from them, that are sold to people and then generally disposed of after a short period of use. But the COVID-19 pandemic has upended normal economic activity, dipping the global economy into what may become the worst economic downturn
since the Great Depression
. Rather than try to revive a system that’s inherently wasteful, the European Commission has vowed to
build a sustainable circular economy
post-pandemic. More
HERE
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National drop in vehicle-related pollution provides glimpse of an electrified future
With less traffic due to pandemic shutdowns, the air in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto and other urban centres is clearer — and much healthier. In the longer-term, replacing normal vehicle volumes with EVs would have the same life-saving effect. If you’re spending all your time isolating indoors, you might not have noticed, but Canada’s cities are currently experiencing a dramatic decrease in pollution and fossil fuel emissions. The big difference maker: fewer cars and trucks on the roads. More
HERE
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As COVID-19 forces us to rethink hygiene, a study shows EV chargers are cleaner than gas pumps
Sometimes there are “did you knows?” you simply do not want the answers to. For instance, did you know the average gas station pump handle has nearly 200% more germs and bacteria on it than the average toilet seat? Or that 71% of gas pump handles are considered “highly contaminated” with illness-carrying microbes, according to a
2015 study
from the Kimberly-Clark Corporation?
Or that on average, a “regular” fuel button has over a million more germs on it than its “premium” counterpart? More
HERE
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The siren call: how one municipality broke new ground in ambulance electrification
Oxford County took an innovative step towards electrification when it commissioned two specially built hybrid ambulances. Now it’s adding more and inspiring others to follow suit
When Oxford County in southwestern Ontario set a goal in 2015 of using 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, ambulances might not have been one of the obvious places to start. But now, less than two years after the county introduced a pair of hybrid ambulances developed in conjunction with Crestline Coach Ltd., of Saskatoon, it is on track to have seven hybrids in a 14-ambulance fleet by the end of 2019. Oxford’s experience is also helping inspire rollouts of hybrid ambulances in British Columbia, Toronto and elsewhere. More
HERE
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RETScreen responds to COVID-19
As a result of COVID-19, RETScreen is pleased to offer professionals and students free access to self-study material on the RETScreen Clean Energy Management Software via their eLearning channel on YouTube. The channel is set up for users to view videos top to bottom, left to right.
Click
HERE
to access the channel's 65+ videos and that cover all aspects of RETScreen Expert, including the benchmark, feasibility, performance and portfolio analysis modules. The videos will not only help you develop skills in using RETScreen but also broaden and deepen your knowledge of energy management and clean energy. All videos are available in French, with some also available in Spanish and Chinese. In these unprecedented times, RETScreen Customer Support remains fully available through
LinkedIn
or by
e-mail
. Visit also
www.greenhealthcare.ca/RETScreen
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CALL for Submissions
Canadian Healthcare Facilities - Summer/Numéro d’ete
Deadline for Submissions: Friday June 5, 2020
The Summer issue of CHES's Journal, Canadian Healthcare Facilities (CHF), will once again highlight CHES member success stories related to the theme of the 2020 CHES National Conference: Enriching Patient Experiences by Optimizing the Environment. In addition, with the global COVID-19 pandemic and outbreak spreading nationwide, we are looking to include stories from CHES members about what their teams and facilities have done and continue to do to prepare for the surge of sick patients and protect existing patient populations.
If you are interested in sharing a story, you are encouraged to contact the Journal's editor, Clare Tattersall, at
claret@mediaedge.ca
with the proposed topic and a brief description (2-3 sentences) of the focus.
APPEL à comunications
Canadian Healthcare Facilities - Numéro d’ete
Date limite pour les soumissions : vendredi 5 juin 2020
L’édition estivale de la revue de la SCISS, Canadian Health Facilities (CHF), soulignera une fois de plus les succès des membres de la SCISS relatifs au thème du Congrès national 2020 de la SCISS : Optimiser l’environnement pour améliorer l’expérience-patient. Dans le cadre de la pandémie mondiale de la COVID-19 et de sa flambée sur l’ensemble du pays, nous souhaitons également inclure des récits de membres de la SCISS concernant les actions entreprises par leurs équipes et leurs établissements et mises en œuvre de manière suivie pour se préparer à l’afflux de personnes malades et protéger les populations existantes de patients.
Si partager une anecdote vous intéresse, nous vous encourageons à contacter le rédacteur en chef de la revue, Clare Tattersall, à
claret@mediaedge.ca
, pour préciser le thème proposé et décrire brièvement son idée-force en deux ou trois phrases.
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Climate Change Resources
The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care has the resources you need to help your facility take action on climate change. Learn more
HERE
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GHS Deadline Extension...
The spread of COVID-19 has accelerated to the level of a national emergency and we know you as health care workers are doing your best to battle against the virus for the sake of us all. THANK YOU for everything you are doing!
In an effort to try and relieve some of the pressure on your time, we are
extending the deadline
for the current Green Hospital Scorecard (GHS) program survey
until July 1, 2020.
Have you started your submission yet?
Click here
to access this year's survey, which collects information for 2018 (January – December). If your organisation has multiple sites, a separate survey is required for each site. Please coordinate with your in-house team to ensure only one survey per hospital site is submitted.
After opening and saving the survey, you will be emailed a unique link that will allow you to resume and edit your survey. Hospitals with multiple sites should open a new blank survey for every site by
re-clicking HERE
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Educational Webinar
The Coalition hosted an educational webinar to review the GHS survey and answered questions on how to submit your data. This webinar reviewing various sections and GHS updates can be viewed
HERE
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Deadline
Submission deadline -
EXTENDED:
July 1, 2020
.
Participation in the Green Hospital Scorecard is FREE. To help cover program delivery costs we encourage all participants to become members of the Coalition. For membership details, contact Dan at
dan@greenhealthcare.ca
.
The Coalition looks forward to sharing results from this year's GHS survey and we hope you are staying safe and supported during these times.
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A BIG
thank you to
www.SaveOnEnergy.ca
for their continued financial support for the Ontario Green Health Care Award and the Ontario Energy Behaviour Award
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In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the following events have been CANCELLED/POSTPONED
CHES Ontario Conference (May 31 - June 2, 2020 Windsor) -
Cancelled
CHES National Conference (September 20-22, 2020 Halifax) -
Cancelled
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RETScreen Expert ONLINE workshop: Project analysis 101 for the public sector
This one-day RETScreen workshop is geared towards all staff who want to build a business case and analyze the effectiveness of their energy conservation projects - applicable to anyone working in or with public sector organisations in Ontario. Learn the principles, concepts and functions of RETScreen Expert software.
WHEN:
June 1, 2020
TIME: 8:30 AM to 4:30 PM
Price: $240.00 + HST
Learn how you can get a sponsored one-year RETScreen Expert subscription ($869 value)
Due to the online nature of this training, space is limited to 20 participants. Additional workshops can be added depending on interest.
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CHES Ontario Conference
CANCELLED
Engineering Sustainable Healthcare Facilities
May31-June2, 2020
Caesars Windsor
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CHES 2020 National Conference
CANCELLED
Enriching Patient Experiences by Optimizing the Environment
September 20-22, 2020
Halifax Convention Centre - Halifax, NS
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CHES 2020 Webinar Series
Wednesday June 17, 2020
- Optimizing Design with Virtual and Mixed Reality (AR/VR)
Speaker: Daniel Doherty, BTech, C.E.T., CM BIM
Wednesday October 21, 2020
- CSA Z317.13-17 Role of the Multi-Disciplinary Team - Pros and Cons
Speaker: Wayne Stokes, CET arch, FMA, RPA
Wednesday November 18, 2020 -
Awareness / Update on Med Gas Qualified Operators
Speaker: Roger Holliss
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Organ Donation - The Ultimate Recycling
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. Or visit the
Government of Canada
website to register and donate.
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Click
HERE
to learn how RETScreen Expert software can help your organisation quickly analyze cost savings, feasibility and emissions reductions.
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If you have inspirational greening stories or photos to share with Green Digest readers, please send them to Kent at
kent@greenhealthcare.ca
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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
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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.
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