Month: March 2024

Earth Month Webinar: Reviewing the Planetary Health Report Card Results

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In celebration of Earth Day April 22nd, the Green Team ERG will be hosting a variety events all month including webinars, plant giveaways, and a recycling event. Become a member via this link to receive our newsletter with more details.

This time we are Reviewing the Planetary Health Report Card Results with Shuchi Sharma and Ankit Annapareddy on April 10th, 12-1pm.

The student organization, Sustainability in Medicine, at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, has completed the Planetary Health Report Card for the third year in a row.

This is part of a national effort to analyze the sustainability education and change efforts at health professional schools across the world. Our overall grade has decreased from 67% to 59% this year but our curriculum grade, supported significantly by student efforts, remains stable at 61%.

During this presentation, we will share:

  • Our process
  • More detailed findings
  • Recommendations to continue an upward trajectory

Shuchi Sharma is a rising fourth-year medical student who has participated in Sustainability in Medicine since her first year. She is passionate about increasing awareness about the importance of sustainable practices in and outside medicine. She hopes to continue her work as a resident in general surgery and beyond.

Ankit Annapareddy is a first-year medical student at The Ohio State University. Before joining medical school, he was involved in sustainability efforts in the Columbus area. He is interested in the intersection of community health and sustainability and hopes to continue his efforts there in the future.

Register for the webinar here.

Can’t make the webinar? A recording with be sent out to registrants.

Not part of the Green Team yet? You can join here: go.osu.edu/greenteamsignup

Clean Up America with ACC at The Ohio State University

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The American Conservation Coalition (ACC) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to mobilizing young people around environmental action through common-sense, pro-innovation, and limited-government principles. nonprofit organization dedicated to mobilizing young people around environmental action through common-sense, pro-innovation, and limited-government principles.

The ACC has branches all across the country including a branch at The Ohio State University! About ACC at OSU: Our branch strives to make Climate Change a topic that all feel welcome to converse upon by broadening the scope of who is generally involved in those conversations. Particularly we do this by changing the narrative on climate change through our large community events and our extensive community collaborations. This allows us to garner the attention needed as well as the means necessary to change the narrative around climate change in the Columbus community.

On April 21 ACC OSU and ACC Hoosiers are organizing a branch showdown to clean up America!

About the Challenge: On the first day of Earth Week (April 21st), join us for a three-hour action blitz as ACC Branches and individuals across the nation rally together to make a tangible impact in their communities. Participants will engage in clean-up activities to remove litter and waste from parks, streets, waterways, and anywhere our communities have been polluted!

Competition Details: Clean Up America is not just about participation—it’s about making a difference for our homes. Teams or individuals will track their progress by dividing the number of attendees by the number of full 13-gallon trash bags collected during the event. At the end of the competition, we will have a winning team and a winning individual! The winning team and individual will be determined based on this ratio and announced at the completion of the challenge (after April 21st).

How to Get Involved: Ready to join the Branch Showdown? Gather your friends, family, and fellow conservationists to register to Clean Up America today! Let’s show the power of our united movement.

Register Here!

Learn more about the ACC at The Ohio State University by listening to this podcast!

Register for CleanMed Webinar Series

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CleanMed is the premier conference on environmental sustainability in the health care sector. In prepapration for their annual conference in Salt Lake City in May, CleanMed is offering FREE webinars on the topic of sustainability in healthcare.

Reducing food waste to feed your community & save money

April 25, 2024; 3 p.m. EST Register Here

Food should feed people, not landfills. Food waste not only contributes to climate change, but is a missed opportunity for addressing food insecurity in our communities.

Learn from Practice Greenhealth partners about the creative and comprehensive approaches they have used to reduce wasted food, and how doing so has saved money, reduced their climate impact, and supported hunger relief in their communities.

The value of clinical leadership & governance structure in advancing sustainability

May 2, 2024; 3 p.m. EST Register Here

Clinical care is a driving factor of health care emissions and pollution. As the largest percentage of a hospital’s workforce, it is critical to engage, educate, and empower clinicians to lead change. Health care organizations gain many benefits from positioning a health professional in a leadership role within their sustainability governance structure.

In this session, hear about Ascension’s Clinical Work Group within their Environmental Impact and Sustainability program, which harnesses organizational decision-making pathways toward decreasing the environmental impact of clinical care.

Learn about the inclusion of health professional leadership within Ascension’s governance structure and processes and programming for clinical sustainability initiatives including desflurane elimination, improving regulated medical waste segregation, and educating clinicians about conserving resources.

It’s Farmworker Awareness Week!

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OSU Libraries has recently put together a U.S. Farmworker Awareness Library Guide to provide insight on this important topic.

This guide hosts a list of books, web resources, and videos which may be of use in understanding the history of farmworkers in the U.S.

National Farmworker Awareness Week usually takes place the last week of March and honors the contributions of farm laborers while promoting awareness of the difficulties farmworkers face. This annual week of recognition began in 1998 – founded by a nonprofit organization called Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF).

Special Thanks to Alpha Psi Lambda who recently shed light on this topic with a recent event: Rooted Resilience: Exploring Latinx Studies & Farm Worker Advocacy Movements.

Additionally thank you to University Librarian Leticia Wiggins for sharing this information and providing resources!

Yard Waste Tips for Spring

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Spring Cleaning means sprucing up those yards for the warmer months. Fortunately, the Green Team ERG is here to help provide tips and resources on Yard Waste.

1. Curbside Pick-up

Most Columbus addresses have yard waste curbside pickup. This is probably the most convenient form of disposal. Use the Collection Day Lookup to see if and when your address is eligible for curbside yard waste pickup.

The City of Columbus also provides information on yard waste collection such as what is accepted, what is not accepted and how to prepare your yard waste for collection.

Be sure to avoid plastic bags, food waste, rocks and dirt.

2. Yard Waste Drop-Off

Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio (SWACO) subsidizes the cost for Franklin County residents to be able to drop off their yard waste materials for FREE at processors who turn yard waste materials into compost and mulch. Visit swaco.org/yardwaste for a list of those drop-off locations as well as a list of the materials accepted and hours of operations.

3. Food Waste and Compost

Only stems, roots and leaves can be collected for the above mentioned collections, so what to do if you have food waste such as fallen fruit? The most sustainable solution is to compost. Compost bins can also include many particles that are also seen in yard waste such as leaves, grass clippings, and sticks.

Want to learn more or become more active in Sustainability? Check out OSUMC’s Green Team ERG.

Or sign up to be a member!

Earth Month webinar: Greening the OR

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Join the Green Team ERG on April 5 at noon

In celebration of Earth Day April 22, the Green Team ERG will be hosting a variety events all month, including webinars, plant giveaways, and a cooking demo. Become a member via this link to receive our newsletter with more details.

To start Earth Month, join the Green Team from noon to 1 p.m. April 5 for a webinar with Vidya Raman, MD, MBA, FASA, FAAP, on sustainability in the operating room.

Some topics that will be covered:

– Sustainability as whole

– Health care contribution and perioperative operating room impact

– Anesthesia and surgery carbon footprint

– What we are doing at the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center

– Future plans at the Wexner Medical Center

Dr. Raman is a clinical professor in the Department of Anesthesiology at The Ohio State University College of Medicine. She has held a faculty appointment since 2007 and transitioned her clinical practice from Nationwide Children’s Hospital to the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center in 2022. She’s completed training in pediatrics, anesthesiology and pediatric anesthesia. Her research interests center around perioperative sustainability. She has given many national talks, podcasts and papers on the topic and hopes to make an impact on climate action through her work on perioperative sustainability. She has not only helped with decreasing Ohio State’s operating room carbon footprint, but also cost containment. Her work has saved over $100,000 in in 2023. She looks forward to making more of an impact and moving clinical engagement of sustainability beyond the perioperative spaces into other clinical areas.

Register for the webinar here.

Can’t make the webinar? A recording will be sent out to registrants and posted on this site.

Not part of the Green Team yet? You can join here: go.osu.edu/greenteamsignup

— By Judy Gregory

OSU Professor zeroes in on an ocean virus to combat climate change

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“’Oceans soak up carbon, and that buffers us against climate change. CO2 is absorbed as a gas, and its conversion into organic carbon is dictated by microbes,’ Sullivan said. ‘What we’re seeing now is that viruses target the most important reactions in these microbial community metabolisms. This means we can start investigating which viruses could be used to convert carbon toward the kind we want.'”

Matthew Sullivan is Professor of Microbiology and Director of the Center of Microbiome Science at The Ohio State University. He recently presented research at the American Association for the Advancement of Science showing his lab’s work on viruses that infect bacteria and the study of manipulating marine microbes into positive carbon conversion.

Read the full article about this research on Ohio State News.