“Healthcare Without Harm is more of an advocacy organization that works with clinicians and other healthcare workers to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare and pollution as well as climate impacts. And then Practice Greenhealth advises hospitals on how to get there and they do this awards process…(which is) about having people aware of all these different metrics that impact your operational sustainability…(and) raise awareness among the people who are running the hospital and leadership about how they’re using water, food waste, where they’re buying their food from, their waste hauling costs and the type of waste they’re throwing away, their…carbon emissions…and guides.”
Dr. Anna Goldman on Electric Ladies Podcast
“The climate crisis poses a critical threat to health systems and populations globally with projections of 14.5 million preventable deaths and 1.1 trillion in healthcare costs by 2050,” the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine said. How can hospitals care for patients and staff 24/7 every day while also reducing its own carbon footprint and stay safe in extreme weather events?
Listen to Dr. Katherine Gergen-Barnett and Dr. Anna Goldman of Boston Medical Center in this fascinating conversation with Electric Ladies Podcast host Joan Michelson.
You’ll hear about:
- Their creative initiatives and systems to reduce food waste, feed patients and staff better, and reduce energy and water consumption, CO2 emissions, and waste.
- How state policies directly affect hospitals and communities and can support systems change, even regardless of federal policies.
- What Practice Greenhealth is and how it’s helping BMC and other medical centers manage their unique challenges and reduce their environmental impact and costs.
- Plus, career advice, such as:
“You can do it all, but you don’t have to do it all at once.…Enjoy each chapter. There are parts where I’ve absolutely receded based on what matters most. Recently when my father was ill and dying, I needed to step away from some of my career pulls to say, this is what matters to me….Try as best as you can not to be fear-driven. I think we are so driven by fear that we’re never going to be enough, that we aren’t going to contribute enough….(Y)ou actually are enough just as you are, right? Take this day, do what you can. Impact the people around you.…Become partners in your career with unlikely people, people who don’t think like you, people who aren’t doing the same career as you. You’ll get a lot more joy out of, I think, your career because of the cross-pollination.”
Dr. Katherine Gergen-Barnett on Electric Ladies Podcast
Subscribe to Joan’s Electric Ladies Podcast newsletter here to receive podcasts, career advice, events and articles in your inbox weekly. Read Joan’s Forbes articles here.
You’ll also like:
- How Hospitals Can Juggle 24/7 Care & Climate Impacts – with Carol Gomes, CEO/COO of Stony Brook University Hospital
- Using Software & AI to Reduce CO2 & Increase Resilience – with Lydia Walpole & Chris Bradshaw of Bentley Systems
- Leveraging AI for Sustainability – with Mandi McReynolds, VP of External Affairs & Chief Sustainability Office at Workiva
- Music, Public Health & Climate Action – with Emma O’Brien, Ph.D., Global Scrub Choir
- Connecting With Curiosity – with Jennifer Hough, Author, TEDx Speaker, Advisor to Leaders
- Artificial Intelligence and the Climate: Stephanie Hare, Ph.D, author of “Technology is Not Neutral” and BBC Broadcaster
- Why Our Lives Depend on Women on Boards – with Corinne Post, Ph.D., Lee High University (now at Villanova)
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