No images? Click here
January 2, 2025
Happy New Year from the SHE Center! Wishing you a healthy and energizing start to 2025.
Sustainability Actions for the Holidays
For many, the holidays are a time to gather, enjoy a shared meal, and often exchange gifts. For all these reasons, the amount of waste produced in the United States also increases. On Thanksgiving alone, up to 316 million pounds of food are wasted, equivalent to $526 million in groceries and 5,000 tons of methane greenhouse gases produced once in the landfill. Beyond food waste, we also encounter more paper and plastic waste from shipping. For ways we can be mindful of our consumption this season, see the links below for resources shared by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
News & Updates
Climate and Health Results for United Nations (UN) Conference
The United Nations annual Climate Change Conference, COP29, ended on November 22, and news continues to emerge from the two weeks of negotiations. The largest negotiation outcome was the deal reached by the wealthy, disproportionately high carbon-emitting countries in attendance to provide a combined $300 billion annually through 2035 to support climate adaptation efforts in poorer, more climate-vulnerable countries.
This figure is well below the original target of $1.3 trillion requested by developing nations, leaving many frustrated with the lack of financial support to handle a crisis driven by wealthier nations.
In addition to participating in the financial agreements, the United States endorsed a number of climate declarations during the conference, including the COP29 Declaration on Multisectoral Action Pathways (MAP) to Resilient and Healthy Cities. The declaration describes the 45 signing countries’ intent to promote healthy and equitable urban environments through sound urban planning, policy, science, and finance. Lastly, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services used COP29 as an opportunity to share recent changes to the U.S. health system, including:
- The Veteran’s Health Administration and the Indian Health Service will address greenhouse gas emissions from anesthetics by removing desflurane, the most potent greenhouse gas-emitting anesthetic, from their formulary and piloting a switch to portable supplies of nitrous oxide instead of leaky central supply lines.
- The above agencies as well as the Bureau of Prisons will investigate ways to minimize emissions from metered-dose inhalers, such as reducing unnecessary prescriptions and using lower carbon alternatives including dry-powder inhalers.
- The Veterans Health Administration will require that all system hospitals employ a Facility Sustainability Officer.
The Center for Sustainability, Health and the Environment and the Office of Global Health Screening of Bad River - Available on Infoscope
On Thursday, December 5, 2024, the Center for Sustainability, Health and the Environment (SHE Center) collaborated with the Office of Global Health to host a screening of the documentary film Bad River as a part of MCW Global Health Week and the Global Health Scholarly Concentration. Professor Sonny Smart (featured in film) and Dr. Brian Jackson, hosted a discussion following the film.
Professor Sonny Smart leading the post documentary discussion.
Climate & Health Education Student Fellowship: Call for Applications
The Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health is requesting applications for their 2025-2026 cohort of Climate & Health Education Student Fellowships. The fellowship features opportunities for mentorship and leadership, advocacy and organizing, and education and communication training. The time commitment is approximately 10 hours a week, and there is a stipend as well as funds for project development. Applications must be submitted by January 15, 2025.
Upcoming Events
The Missing Piece in Stroke Risk - Environmental Factors, January 8, 12pm CST
The Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai will be hosting the last seminar in its Environment & Health Webinar Series focusing on environmental factors contributing to stroke risk. Maayan Yitshak-Sade, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Medicine and Climate Science, will be presenting her research on the impacts of temperature, greenness, and air pollution on stroke morbidity and mortality. Her presentation will be followed by a discussion with Ismail Nabeel, MD, MPH, MS, FACOEM, Professor, Department of Environmental Medicine and Climate Science. Click here to register. If you are interested in air pollution and health, keep scrolling to see a newly published paper on air pollution and blood clots in our “On Our Radar: Research, Podcasts, and More” section.
Climate Action and Sustainability in Academic Medicine Collaborative Meeting, January 9, 2pm CST
David Calloway, MD, Chief of Crisis Operations and Sustainability at Advocate Health, will lead a meeting titled On the Front Lines of Health Care and Climate Change: What Can We Learn from Crisis Response? in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene. Dr. Calloway will draw on his time as an expeditionary physician with the United States Marine Corps as he discusses forging nontraditional partnerships; employing a model of assess, align, act; creating a team of teams built on trust and a common purpose; and moving beyond communications to information operations. Click here to register.
Our Planet, Our Health: 2025 Climate Action Convention, March 1 - 4
The Medical Society Consortium for Climate and Health will be hosting its annual conference at the National Academy of Sciences and Bloomberg Hopkins Center in Washington DC from March 1-4, 2025. Sessions will center around topics such as mental resilience amid the climate crisis, children’s health, and partnering with communities that are already taking action. For those who are interested in attending but cannot travel, there will be a virtual option available for a smaller selection of sessions throughout the conference. For more information and to register, follow this link.
On Our Radar: Research, Podcasts, and More
Funding Opportunities
Burroughs Wellcome Fund Climate Change and Human Health Seed Grants:
The Burroughs Wellcome Fund is accepting applications for grants of $2,500-$50,000 focused on climate change and human health, with rolling deadlines starting Jan. 23, 2025 and extending through July 24, 2026. The Fund plans to dedicate $1 million during that time to projects that pilot ways to reduce healthcare’s climate impact, explore connections between basic science approaches and planetary health, and prepare for climate-related natural disasters. For more information, review the grant details on the Fund website.
NIH Calling for Climate Change and Health Grant Applications: The NIH Climate Change and Health Initiative (CCHI), an urgent, cross-cutting NIH effort to stimulate research to reduce health threats from climate change across the lifespan, is seeking applications that propose implementation studies to understand and address barriers and facilitators to the adoption, implementation, scale-up, and sustainment of effective interventions to prevent or mitigate the health effects of climate change in the United States and globally. Applications are due Feb. 5, 2025. For more information, read the Notice of Special Interest.
Resources & More
MCW is a member of several consortia and membership organizations with different resources to support engagement in climate action in academic medicine. Contact us for any assistance in signing up!
Global Consortium for Climate and Health Education (GCCHE) aims to unite health professional training institutions, health societies, and regional health organizations to create a global climate-ready health sector, prepared to mobilize and lead health promotion and response in the era of climate change, while restoring the health of the planet. Learn more and join here.
Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Climate Action Virtual Community provides meaningful connection to the myriad people in academic medical centers working across mission areas to address the climate crisis and improve institutional resiliency. Request an account using your MCW email address here. Once your account has been approved, click here to join the Climate Action and Sustainability group.
Practice Greenhealth is the health care sector’s go-to source for information, tools, data, resources, and expert technical support on sustainability initiatives that help hospitals and health systems meet their health, financial, and community goals. Learn more.
Interested in learning more about the SHE Center at an upcoming MCW departmental, institute, or center faculty and/or staff meeting? Email Dr. Wagner to schedule.
Was this email forwarded to you? Sign-up here.
Questions, comments, or content to share? Send it our way: SHECenter@mcw.edu
Connect to the SHE Center on Social!
Medical College of Wisconsin | 8701 Watertown Plank Road | Milwaukee, WI 53226
You are receiving this email because you are subscribed to the SHE Center Notes.
© 2025 Medical College of Wisconsin. All rights reserved.
