No images? Click here
February 28, 2025
Stay Tuned for Earth Month News...
This April, the Center for Sustainability, Health, and the Environment (SHE Center) will partner with the MCW Wellness team to host a variety of Earth Month activities to support planetary health. Throughout the month, the Center will participate in the One Healthcare Ecochallenge; our MCW team has been created for students, faculty, and staff to join - register here. On April 24, there will be an Earth Day event featuring a seedling swap, recycling drop-off, and presentations from community partners. Be on the lookout for more details to come!
News & Updates
SHE Center, Froedtert Staff Visit Hospital Sites to Help "Green" the Operating Rooms
Greening the OR team visiting the Froedtert West Bend Hospital
On February 6 and 7, members of the grant-funded “Greening the Operating Room (OR)” team from the MCW SHE Center and Froedtert Hospital visited Froedtert West Bend and Froedtert Menomonee Falls Hospitals to meet staff members interested in healthcare sustainability. The days’ conversations were structured around a “Greening the OR” checklist developed by the research team that was based on resources from Practice Greenhealth.
Hospital staff members were highly engaged and showed a great deal of motivation and creativity in their efforts to find ways to reduce waste and conserve energy. A big thank you to hospital staff for welcoming the team and for all their sustainability efforts!
MCW SHE Center, Global Health Programs Represented at International Global Health Conference
More than 15 MCW students, faculty, and staff, including representatives from the SHE Center and Office of Global Health, participated in the 2025 Consortium of Universities for Global Health (CUGH) annual meeting. This year’s conference theme focused on “Innovating and Implementing in Global Health for a Sustainable Future.” Concurrent and plenary sessions covered planetary health topics including plastics pollution, climate change impacts on non-communicable diseases, medical school curriculum development, and extreme weather impacts on healthcare delivery. In poster sessions, M2 Victoria Toledo presented work conducted under the mentorship of Dr. Kirsten Beyer titled,
“Climate Health Equity Curriculum for Milwaukee Public School (MPS) Educators.” This poster received a student finalist recognition and investigated the attitudes and understanding of MPS teachers regarding climate change, environmental health literacy, and related inequities before and after deployment of new climate and health equity curriculum.
Get Involved: MCW Wellness Team to Host a Clothing Swap
The MCW Wellness team will be hosting a clothing swap on April 3, 11am-2pm in the cafeteria lobby. A clothing swap is an event where people can exchange gently used clothing to promote sustainable consumption without incurring additional financial costs. If you have clothing you would like to swap, please place the clothing items in one of the available bins located in the Health Research Center and HUB lobbies between March 17 and March 28. Please, no shoes. You are more than welcome to attend the swap and take clothing even if you had not brought your own items! With any questions, please contact kcorcoran@mcw.edu or wellness@mcw.edu.
Wisconsinites Weigh in on Local Natural Gas Power Plants and Public Health
Natural Gas Plant in the town of Paris, WI (photo courtesy of WE Energies)
On February 5, the Wisconsin Public Service Commission held a public hearing for community members to voice their opinions on the proposed construction of a second WE Energies natural gas power plant in Kenosha County. While burning natural gas harms the environment less than burning coal or oil, it still contributes 35% of US carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions related to energy and 33% of all methane emissions.
Both CO2 and methane are greenhouse gases. In addition to environmental harms, burning natural gas is also responsible for poor population health outcomes, due to increased air pollution. Communities near a natural gas power plant tend to see worse asthma outcomes and higher levels of cancer and heart disease. The Union of Concerned Scientists and Healthy Climate Wisconsin estimate that the Oak Creek and Paris gas plants could result in up to $5.7 billion of health and economic costs over 30 years.
How to Monitor Federal Changes to Climate Policies
In the first several weeks of 2025, President Trump’s new administration has taken steps to limit environmental regulation originally designed to mitigate carbon emissions and climate change, many of which will ultimately have human health impacts. TIME Magazine published an article summarizing some of the most notable actions, from exiting the Paris Accords to reducing the Environmental Protection Agency workforce. The New York Times also published an executive actions tracker with filters to search by issue area, including climate or education (subscription required). If you would like even more details on specific federal actions affecting climate, the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School has created a Climate Backtracker with details of all changes to climate laws and policies. For information on how MCW is responding to and tracking federal actions that directly impact academic medical centers, click here to view the Executive Action Response Team’s Infoscope site.
Upcoming Events
Our Planet, Our Health: 2025 Climate Action Convention, March 1 - 4
The Medical Society Consortium for Climate and Health will host its annual conference at the National Academy of Sciences and Bloomberg Hopkins Center in Washington DC from March 1-4. 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.
Reducing Single-Use Plastics Webinar, March 11, 12:15-1pm CST
The National Academy of Medicine will host a webinar titled Reducing Single-Use Plastics from 12:15pm-1pm CST on March 11th The event features Barbara Erny, MD, Stanford University School of Medicine, Preeti Mehrotra, MD, Boston University, Hilary Ong, MD, UC San Francisco, and Colin Cave, MD, Kaiser Permanente. Panelists will discuss avenues both in personal practice as well as policy to reduce plastic pollution in healthcare as well as the human health implications of excess plastic. For information and to register, follow this link.
Climate-Ready Healthcare: Building Resilience with Collaborative Toolkits, March 26, 2pm CST
On March 26th at 2pm CST, the University of California Health system will host a webinar that discusses adjustments health systems can make to adapt to health needs in a changing climate. The health centers from each of the participating University of California schools will present a toolkit they have developed on a different climate resilience topic, such as extreme heat preparedness, wildfire smoke and air quality, and external engagement.
To read more and register, click here.
National Academies of Medicine Climate and Health Summit
On Earth Day, April 22, starting at 10am, the National Academy of Medicine will host its second annual Climate and Health Summit, which will feature panels on innovative climate and health programs across the country. The event will be held virtually. Click here to learn more and register.
On Our Radar: Research, Podcasts, and More
Funding Opportunities
Health-First Climate Action Research Center Pilot Grants:
The new NIH-funded community-driven, Health-First Climate Action Research Center (The Center) announced its new pilot grants research awards. The Center will make available $90,000 for pilot grants and will fund multiple grants of up to $20,000-40,000 in total costs and seeks proposals that focus on community-engaged climate action and sustainability. This includes, but is not limited to, green energy, active transportation, reducing energy demands, sustainable food systems, green infrastructure, waste mitigation, and other potential solutions that both reduce greenhouse gas emissions and have a human health benefit. Read the full request for proposals here. Please
direct any questions to the Center's Coordinator, Caitlin-Warlick-Short at cshort2@wisc.edu. The full proposal submission deadline is March 7, 2025 at 5:00pm (CT).
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.
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.
