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November 24, 2025
Sustainability During the Holidays
For many, the holidays are a time to gather and enjoy a shared meal. In turn, the amount of food waste produced in the United States also increases during this season. On Thanksgiving alone, over 300 million pounds of food are wasted, equivalent to nearly $500 million in groceries and 5,000 tons of the greenhouse gas methane produced once in a landfill. See below for how MCW and its hospital affiliates support environmental stewardship by diverting food waste from landfills year-round, as well as actions you can take to reduce food waste in your home.
MCW, Children's Wisconsin turn food waste into compost
Since June 2024, the kitchens in MCW's cafeteria and HUB cafe have diverted food scraps from landfills and instead sent it to Compost Crusader to be turned into nutrient-rich soil. During that time, the kitchens' combined efforts have led to more than 8,500 pounds of food composted.
Seeing the success of MCW's efforts, in July 2025, Children's Wisconsin re-vamped its composting program through its own partnership with Compost Crusader. Children's also focuses on the back-of-house kitchen preparation area, where meals are prepared for cafeteria service as well as in-room patient dining. Since July, Children's Wisconsin has already composted 5,328 pounds of food waste!
Monica Edwards and other Froedtert Hospital staff with packaged excess food for delivery
Froedtert Hospital cafeteria sends excess meals to local food rescue program
In August 2025, Froedtert hospital launched a food donation program to send excess food to Just One More Food Ministries. In its first few months, the program has donated over 6,000 4-ounce servings of food -- nearly 2,000 meals! All excess food shared with the food rescue is medically tailored, meaning that it is nutrient dense, but low in sodium, fat, and added sugar. Froedtert Hospital further emphasizes sustainability by sanitizing and reusing yogurt, cottage cheese, and cream cheese containers to package the excess food, which keeps packaging costs near zero. Monica Edwards, Froedtert Food and Nutrition Services Coordinator, says that source reduction is still the focus, but variable patient populations mean that some surplus food is inevitable. A special thank you to MCW's Joanne Bernstein, MD, MSE, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, for facilitating and encouraging this partnership!
For more details on reducing home food waste, see these tips from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency or the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
News and Updates
MCW medical student garden flourishes in summer, fall 2025
After its inaugural year in 2024, the MCW student garden doubled its size for the 2025 season. Cultivated and cared for by dozens of students over the growing season, the garden is truly "by the students, for the students," providing quick and easy access to healthy ingredients directly from the garden through the Dr. Karen Marcdante Student Food Center. Despite her busy schedule as a Phase 2 medical student, Sophia Sorenson made it a priority to volunteer in the garden: "The community garden is very grounding for me (forgive the pun). When I come off my rotation, I can take a pause and look at how far the little seedlings have come!" Spending time in green space has also been show to have positive mental and physical health impacts, amplifying the benefits to student volunteers with demanding coursework. Click here to read more about the garden on Infoscope.
MCW medical students managing the year's harvest
AAMC releases report on planetary health content in U.S. medical school curricula
A new Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) report on planetary health in medical school curricula shows that 69% of 157 U.S. medical schools have incorporated at least some content on the impact of a changing environment on human health as of 2024, up from 27% in 2020. Out of the 108 institutions with planetary health content as of the recent report, 48 included content during both pre-clerkship and clerkship phases, 52 included content during the pre-clerkship phase alone, and 8 included planetary health content in the clerkship phase alone. To join the AAMC Sustainability and Academic Medicine Virtual Community and read the full AAMC report, please click here to create a free account with your institutional email address.
Today's medical students will care for patients in a world with more frequent extreme weather events, changing temperature and vector ranges, and increasing air pollution. With pilot and Momentum funds from Advancing a Healthier Wisconsin Endowment, MCW is building an integrated medical curriculum that addresses the health impacts of these challenges. This work has been led by Joanne Bernstein, MD, MSE, Associate Professor, Department of Medicine, with the support of the SHE Center. Stay tuned for future updates on MCW's planetary health curriculum integration.
2025 Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change released
On October 29, The Lancet released the 2025 Global Report of The Lancet Countdown, its annual report on health and climate change assembled by hundreds of global climate and health experts. The report finds that inaction to reduce human impacts on the environment is increasingly costing lives and livelihoods worldwide, with 13 out of 20 health risk indicators reaching new lows, including heat-related deaths and wildfire impacts. Further, global leaders are reversing climate commitments, leading to increased investments and emissions in the fossil fuel industry and making adaptation increasingly challenging.
In spite of the dire findings, the report emphasizes the role that climate action, including local and grassroots efforts, can have in saving lives. These efforts are supported by increasing public interest. Year over year, more scientific journal articles examine climate and health through lenses that include adaptation, mitigation, or impacts, and Google trends indicate that searches for “climate change health” are growing increasingly quickly.
The World Health Organization summarized The Lancet Countdown in preparation for COP30, the United Nations climate change convening. The SHE Center December newsletter will provide additional details of the COP30 climate and health discussion outcomes and resources.
Upcoming Events
Plastics Reduction Week, November 24-28
The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care will host Plastics Reduction Week from November 24-28, featuring free virtual events on topics such as food-related services, textiles, packaging, and perioperative care. For details, including a full schedule and event registration, please follow this link.
MRMC Ride Guide extends commuter survey deadline to November 30
The Milwaukee Regional Medical Center has extended its deadline to complete the annual Commuter Choice Survey through its Ride Guide program to November 30. The information collected in the survey about how campus community members travel to work will help Ride Guide to understand commuting patterns and identify opportunities to improve travel choices in our community. Participants who complete the survey will be entered in a drawing to win a $25 gift card! Please follow this link to complete the survey.
MCW Global Health Week event: Tribal Nations Healthcare, December 4, 2:15pm-3pm
As a part of the medical students' Global Health scholarly concentration, Brian Jackson, MS, EdD, Assistant Professor, Epidemiology and Social Sciences from the Institute for Health and Humanity, will be leader a conversation on Thursday, December 4 at 2:15pm featuring updates on the status of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, as a follow-up to last year's showing of the Bad River documentary. Mike Wiggins, former Tribal Chairman, will provide additional information. Starting at 3pm, there will be Native drumming and storytelling with Dr. Alton "Sonny" Smart and Alton Jackson for those that would like to stay and participate. If you are interested in attending, please contact Maddie Campbell for more details.
MCW Global Health Week event: Children's Environmental Health in a Changing Climate, Friday, December 5, 8am-9am
As a part of Global Health Week programming, Kirsten Beyer, PhD, MPH, MS, Professor, Epidemiology, will lead Pediatrics Grand Rounds on December 5 at 8 am in a session titled, “Children’s Environmental Health in a Changing Climate.” Grand rounds will be held in person in the Children’s Wisconsin Hospital Auditorium, or on Zoom using this link.
NEJM call for climate and health photo submissions, due January 5, 2026
The New England Journal of Medicine has released a call for submissions of images that highlight the clinical health impacts of climate change. Submissions will be accepted through January 5, 2026. For more information, click here. Reach out to the SHE Center to discuss submission ideas or with any questions.
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.
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.
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