No images? Click here
April 30, 2024
SHE Center News & Updates
SHE Center Hosts Earth Day Celebration
On April 22, the MCW Center for Sustainability, Health, and the Environment (SHE Center) hosted a hybrid event in recognition of Earth Day and the one-year anniversary of the institution’s announcement of the Center’s establishment. The event included remarks from MCW leadership and faculty, a recycling drive for batteries, cell phones, plastic bags, and can tabs, and distribution of 300 seedlings! Read more about the event on Infoscope. A recording of the event is available here, and presented slides are available here.
Children's Wisconsin Receives Sustainable Healthcare Organization Certification
Children’s Wisconsin recently received the Certification from The Joint Commission as a Sustainable Healthcare Organization. This certification provides a framework to help organizations expand or continue their de-carbonization efforts and to receive public recognition of their commitment and achievements in contributing to environmental sustainability. Achieving Sustainable Healthcare Certification is not only beneficial for the environment but also for the organization's bottom line, patient outcomes, reputation, and compliance efforts. Children’s Wisconsin is excited to be a part of this program. If you would like to learn more about our carbon reduction journey or join our Sustainability Committee, contact Michael Gorham, Chair of the Environmental Sustainability Committee, at mgorham@childenswi.org.
Froedtert Hospital Shares Sustainability Initiatives for Earth Month
During the month of April, Froedtert Hospital employees shared messages about sustainability actions happening on campus. These included changes to Home Delivery and Specialty Pharmacy to “go green”, updates on the new North Tower solar panels (with real time usage data available here), and new energy and waste reduction efforts in the Food and Nutrition Services team. Ready more details on Froedtert’s sustainability efforts here.
MCW Participates in 2024 Planetary Health Annual Meeting
SHE Center Director Christa Wagner, PhD, served as a delegate at the 2024 Planetary Health Annual Meeting, convened by the Planetary Health Alliance and host Sunway University in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The 4-day conference included participants from over 60 countries discussing various aspects of planetary health and climate action including new curricular opportunities for the health sciences, financing strategies for climate resilience, and building greener cities. Of note, the Sunway University School of Medicine dean, Professor Raja Affendi Raja Ali, joined a panel discussion on transforming medical education for planetary health, where he suggested that the planet should be considered as a clinical stakeholder. He and other panelists highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary teams and trust-building to take action for planetary health.
Over 150 Health Professional Schools Take Part in Planetary Health Report Card 2024
Originally founded in 2019, the Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) is a metric-based tool for evaluating and improving planetary health content in health professional schools. 151 health professional schools participated in the PHRC this year across 18 countries and 7 healthcare disciplines. Their hard work and advocacy is driving planetary health education forward to ensure healthcare professionals of the future are planetary health champions. The 2024 Schools of Medicine report card is here.
CMS Announces Hospital Climate Reporting Pilot Program
On April 10, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Innovation Center announced a voluntary Decarbonization and Resilience Initiative to address threats posed by climate change to the nation's health and healthcare system. This proposed program would support participating organizations in monitoring, assessing, and addressing hospital carbon emissions and their effects on health outcomes, costs, and quality as part of the proposed Transforming Episode Accountability Model (TEAM), slated to launch on January 1, 2026. This model would mark the first time CMS would collect data on health care greenhouse gas emissions. A press release and one pager include additional details on the pilot program.
Upcoming Events
May 1 – 31: MRMC Bike Month Challenge. Join the Ride Guide and other bike commuters at MRMC for the Bike Month Challenge through the Love to Ride platform! In addition to prizes for participating in the app now includes a ‘rate your route’ feature to help create a data set of existing bike routes including areas of needed improvement. Register for the Bike Month Challenge here, and sign up for the monthly Ride Guide newsletter here.
May 21-24: CleanMed Annual Meeting. Founded in 2001 and presented by the non-profit organizations Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth, CleanMed has gained a global reputation as the premier conference on environmental sustainability in the health care sector. Consider joining the MCW and Froedtert faculty and staff attending this year – register here.
May 29: Help plant the MCW Hub Garden! Join Dean Kerschner and Hub Café manager Sara in planting the first MCW Hub Quad garden. Please register and find additional details here.
Ending June 1: Urban blight as Environmental Injustice. The Milwaukee County Historical Society is showing a special exhibit on environmental injustice through June 1. Additional details are available on the exhibit website.
June 20: Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment 20th Anniversary Conference: The Advancing Health for ALL Wisconsin conference aims to seek, create, harness, and share new knowledge and practices to strengthen Wisconsin’s health ecosystem and achieve equitable health outcomes for ALL Wisconsin. Learn more and register here.
What We're Reading
130 million Americans breathe unhealthy air, State of the Air report finds : NPR
Infectious Diseases in a Changing Climate | Infectious Diseases | JAMA | JAMA Network
The January – February edition of the Journal of the American board of Family Medicine focused on climate change and family medicine. Read More.
A new MedEdPORTAL Climate and Health Education Collection is geared toward helping educators and institutions with curricular innovations to address the impact of climate on health. Read More.
Funding Opportunities
Deadline May 6: Community Voices for Action Storytelling Initiative
The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Center for Health Justice is committed to amplifying the voices of all communities and sharing their insights for environmental justice action. Do you or your organization have a story about an environmental injustice where you live and how you have worked with your community to create a healthier, more just environment? The center is seeking up to five collaborators (nonprofit organizations and/or individuals) from across the United States. Each collaborator will work with the center for up to three months and produce their story over the next year. Learn more and apply.
Deadline November 21, 2024: Environmental Protection Agency Community Change Grant: Approximately $2 billion dollars in Inflation Reduction Act funds is available to support environmental and climate justice activities to benefit disadvantaged communities through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, and build community capacity to address environmental and climate justice challenges. Learn more.
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 an introduction to 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, & Suggestions - contact 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.
© 2021 Medical College of Wisconsin. All rights reserved.
