Other Initiatives

  • Identifying and supporting interventions in primary care that contribute to climate mitigation and climate resilience. Click here to learn more.

  • Reducing resource use and waste in the OR and reducing the use of environmentally harmful anesthetic gases. Click here to learn more.

  • Determining how to assess and harness the environmental benefits of virtual care, learning, and work. Click here to learn more.

  • Ensuring commitment to advancing equitable outcomes both in the areas of climate mitigation and resilience. Click here to learn more.

  • Developing city-healthcare partnerships to explore opportunities for the healthcare sector to support city-led climate action. Click here to learn more.

  • Identifying opportunities to leverage healthcare purchasing for sustainability. Click here to learn more

Working Group

  • Working Group Members

    • Peter Goldthorpe, Vice-President, Transformation, The Hospital for Sick Children

    • Penny Karafile, Director, Support Service and Business Development, Scarborough Health Network

    • Katelyn Poyntz, Director, Project Engineering & Energy, Unity Health Toronto, Unity Health

    • Kimberly Wintemute, Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of Toronto

    Secretariat

    • Fiona A. Miller, Director, Centre for Sustainable Health Systems, University of Toronto & CASCADES

    • Katy Devitt, Project Manager, CASCADES

  • Working Group Members

    • Christine Soong, Division Head, Hospital Medicine, Sinai Health

    • Dean Sabean, Senior Project Director, Redevelopment Team, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health

    • Genny Ng, Co-Chair of President's Environmental Sustainability and Greening Task Force; Manager for Quality & Patient Safety, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

    • Ian Rogers, Senior Director Facility Management, Building and Transportation Services, Holland Bloorview

    • Kyle Robinson, Chief Redevelopment & Sustainable Facilities Officer, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids)

    • Nina Malek, Project Manager, North York General Hospital

    Secretariat

    • Fiona A. Miller, Director, Centre for Sustainable Health Systems, University of Toronto & CASCADES

    • Geoff Anderson, Professor, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health

    • Brittany Maguire, Managing Director, Centre for Sustainable Health Systems, University of Toronto

    • Alexandru Titeu, Research Administration Officer, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, Dalla Lana School of Public Health

About the Community of Practice Organizational Readiness for Sustainability Initiative

Toronto Academic Health Science Network hospitals have led many sustainability activities in recent years and decades and are ready to deepen and expand their activities and impact. The Organizational Readiness Working Group was established to support these efforts, leveraging the work that has already been pursued by members of the Toronto Academic Health Science Network, and drawing on evidence and exemplars from sustainability initiatives across Canada and around the world.

Focus of Term Two (2022-2025)

Sustainability Balanced Scorecard

The Working Group is exploring the development of sustainability goals and indicators, in the form of a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard, to encourage and monitor progress in addressing the challenge of climate change and developing and implementing sustainable care systems across TAHSN hospitals. The aim is to create a tool that will complement and support existing TAHSN goals and metrics.

Currently, the Working Group is requesting feedback to inform their approach and potential development of a Sustainability Balanced Scorecard for TAHSN. Please review this feedback request document, which includes a draft of potential dimensions and sustainability objectives for the scorecard. Send any feedback to Brittany Maguire by April 10th, 2023: britt.maguire@utoronto.ca

Focus of Term One (2020-2022)

CASCADES Organizational Readiness Playbook

In collaboration with CASCADES, the Working Group has developed the Organizational Readiness for Sustainability Playbook. Informed by discussions with leaders from across the Toronto Academic Health Science Network, the Playbook reviews the “Why,” “What” and “How” for organizations to mobilize and guide action.  To explain “What” organizations can do, the Playbook further identifies four Domains of Concern and four Areas of Activity, producing an “Activity Matrix” that can be used to identify and prioritize opportunities for action.

The Organizational Readiness Playbook can be accessed on the CASCADES website here.

Highlights Report

A Highlights Report was developed and shared internally among the Toronto Academic Health Science Network to showcase the wide range of sustainability initiatives underway. This report was organized according to the ‘Why, What, and, How’ framework of the Playbook and shows clearly that member hospitals are highly engaged.