Category: Green Healthcare

Reflecting on Canada’s water quality for World Rivers Day

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Clara Phillips

September 23, 2022

On September 25 we celebrate World Rivers Day. This global celebration of our planet’s rivers stemmed from the success of BC Rivers Day, founded by Mark Angelo in western Canada in 1980. The first World Rivers Day was celebrated in 2005 among twelve countries and has since grown with several million people participating last year in up to 100 countries. Learn more here about the history of World Rivers Day and its founder, Mark Angelo.

Water quality efforts in healthcare settings

Pollution prevention in wastewater discharge from healthcare facilities is a challenging task. The common products used to ensure a sanitary environment produce unavoidable subject pollutants. However, certain innovations and thoughtful choices have improved water conditions:

  • Phasing out mercury in thermometers and other medical devices
  • Purchasing cleaning supplies without chemicals that are toxic to aquatic organisms, such as nonylphenol ethoxylates
  • Proper disposal of medications, and prescriptions only when truly needed, to reduce pharmaceutical levels found in sewage

West Park’s latest water quality report, completed in June 2022, follows our Pollution Prevention (P2) Plan that ensures our operations (including in the new hospital) meet the environmental legislative requirements with respect to environmental protection. The new hospital will include modern technology to improve water efficiency and lessen the strain on downstream water utilities and treatment plants:

  • Stormwater leaving the campus will be minimized with green roofs, rain water harvesting and stormwater management ponds
  • The demand for potable water will be reduced with water-efficient fixtures, like low-flow toilets and hands-free faucets, and modern landscaping techniques including a rainwater irrigation system, planting native and drought-tolerant plants, and using mulch to retain water

Water quality in First Nations communities

Canada has the 7th-largest supply of renewable freshwater per capita in the world, but this resource is not evenly distributed nor properly maintained across the entire country. According to the Fraser Institute, the overall state of water quality in Canada is very good; however there are localized areas that require urgent maintenance and monitoring. In particular, Indigenous communities face extreme water security challenges. The stats are alarming: 35% of First Nations communities in Ontario are under a drinking water advisory, meaning they have no access to safe drinking water at home. Limited access to safe water can result in serious illness, increased consumption of sweetened beverages as an alternative to water, poor hygiene, and higher infection transmission.

While the infrastructure and operation of water treatment plants plays a critical role in supplying safe water, protecting the quality of environmental water supplies is invaluable. From 2010-2013, 18% of boil water advisories for drinking water were caused by water quality issues like E. coli or other microbiological parameters. In a study from the University of Waterloo that surveyed members from 10 Indigenous communities from the Northwest Territories and Yukon, they found that 7% of participants consume water collected directly from a nearby body of water, as opposed to tap water, due to various factors influencing their trust of the tap water supply.

The Great Lakes provide a significant source of drinking water and 9 of Canada’s 20 largest cities reside in this region. However, the ability of these lakes to support viable ecosystems is strained by the associated population and the urban and industrial facilities. The Canada-U.S. Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement supports coordinated efforts to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the Great Lakes basin ecosystem. The St. Lawrence River is another vital body of water in our nation, linking the Great Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean, supplying an ecosystem of lakes and freshwater reaches, and home to diverse plant and marine life. The quality of the St. Lawrence River water is at jeopardy due to high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen from human activity through industrial wastewaters, agricultural runoff, and air pollution. As shown in the Figure below, only one water quality monitoring station in Saint-Maurice showed “Good” nutrient levels. Learn about the St. Lawrence Action Plan and the efforts being made to conserve, restore, and protect the St. Lawrence River.

Total phosphorus and nitrogen levels for 2017 to 2019 in the St. Lawrence River

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Lastly, we would like to recognize the upcoming National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on September 30. As a vital component of the reconciliation process, this day commemorates the tragic history and ongoing impacts of residential schools. Many Survivors today are unfortunately also members of the First Nations communities facing water security challenges. Across the country, hundreds of activities are taking place to commemorate the history and legacy of residential schools, and for you to learn about the rich and diverse cultures, voices, and stories of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples.

West Park’s flourishing Gardening Club is growing its own food

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Michelle Rowe-Jardine

September 21, 2022

For anyone who has visited the rooftop patio this summer, patients, family members, staff, and bumblebees have been treated to a gorgeous splash of nature right here at the hospital. The patio is thriving with vibrant greenery and flowers – and even watermelons!

It has been the perfect backdrop to come and relax, eat, socialize, and bask in nature. At the centre of it all are planters that have been overflowing with flowers, fruits, and veggies – and we have the Gardening Club to thank for that.

The Gardening Club, run by Recreation Therapy, brings patients together to get their hands dirty while experiencing the joys of watching a living thing grow and thrive under their care.

Rec therapy has been hard at work with patients to transform the space for everyone to enjoy, and learning a lot along the way.

While neither Ksenia Melamed, Recreation Therapist, nor Jennifer DeGuzman, Recreation Therapy Assistant, were dedicated green thumbs before the program, Melamed says the club has helped her grow into one.

“We learn from each other, and we learn from the patients. The patients know so much,” she says.

Patients provided input for what they would like to grow this summer, which is why you’ll spot tomatoes, peppers, kale, green onions, watermelons and more. After all their hard work, the club harvests these goods and turns them into snacks for the patients, including kale smoothies.

Learn how to grow food in your own backyard or apartment balcony! While there is limited time for the summer harvest, use this guide today to check out what to plant next for the fall season!

West Park takes home top prize from Canadian Coalition of Green Health Care

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Samantha Pender, March 4, 2021

With West Park well on its way to becoming a new integrated campus of care, continuing to minimize the environmental impact in the future has been one of the top priorities. And The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care has taken notice.

At the end of 2020, West Park’s sustainability efforts were recognized with one prestigious award and two honourable mentions. The Centre won the Green Leadership award for the Year of 2019, and received honourable mentions in the Pollution Prevention category and the Green Hospital of the Year category.

The Green Hospital Scorecard is a comprehensive health care benchmarking tool that measures energy and water conservation, waste management and recycling, corporate commitment, and pollution prevention. Participating hospitals report on their environmental and sustainability initiatives through an online questionnaire and the resulting Scorecard summarizes their environmental performance relative to their peers. 

Kendra Rainford, Operational Readiness Coordinator for Campus Development and Sustainability Coordinator, has been leading West Park’s sustainability efforts as chair of the Environmental Sustainability Committee for four years, and is looking forward to supporting the planning of an environmentally sustainable future at the Centre.

“It’s really great to have our sustainability efforts for West Park recognized by The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, and I’m really proud of the work our committee has accomplished so far,” Rainford says. “But we have big plans going forward, and I’m hoping these aren’t the last of our awards.”

This is West Park’s second consecutive year taking home a top award, and third award from The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care overall. West Park has a long-standing history of environmental awards that can be found here: https://www.westpark.org/AboutUs/AwardsandHonours.

While the work accomplished by the Environmental Sustainability Committee so far has captured the attention of many, the committee is forging onward to make a greener and brighter future for West Park’s new hospital, honouring West Park’s longstanding green legacy and commitment to environmentally sustainable healthcare operations.

West Park’s award was presented at the Coalition’s virtual awards ceremony in December 2020 by Executive Director Neil Ritchie.

The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care is recognized as Canada’s premier, integrated green resource network driving leadership in environmentally-sustainable health care practices and a catalyst for environmental change by encouraging the adoption of multiple environmental principles and practices to reduce the Canadian health care sector’s ecological impact while protecting human health.

“The healthcare industry has a huge environmental footprint, and we really want West Park to be at the forefront of trying to reduce that,” Rainford explains. “It’s incredibly important to us that our future operations and practices align with our new state-of-the-art, energy efficient infrastructure in the new hospital.”

The COVID-19 ‘Green’ Lining

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Kendra Rainford, August 27, 2020

How the Shift to Virtual Care has Impacted the Environment

As a direct result of the ongoing Pandemic, healthcare organizations (among other industries) have been forced to rapidly and drastically shift the way that they communicate with their stakeholders. While this challenging and unprecedented response has been a demanding task for all who are tirelessly responding, perhaps a source of motivation has been the silver (or green) lining stemming from the positive environmental impacts associated with delivering services virtually.

With so many people staying home, there has been a downward plunge in carbon emissions associated with a significant reduction in transportation. At West Park, many patient care delivery and operational activities were quickly shifted to a virtual platform to ensure continuation of services and excellent care, thus reducing transportation to and from the Centre.

Liz Udler, a physiotherapist in West Park Healthcare Centre’s Rehab Plus describes her experience using virtual care during the COVID-19 Pandemic: “It is reassuring to know that offering virtual care to patients is an evidence based way to achieve similar rehabilitation outcomes when compared to face-to-face appointments” said Liz.  “In the outpatient department, my colleagues and I tried to accommodate our patients by offering various ways to interact, including; phone, email, and video. My patients have reported high levels of satisfaction and it has been an interesting learning opportunity to adapt our practice in a virtual environment”, Liz concludes.

The University of Toronto (U of T) has recently implemented a Centre for Sustainable Health Systems, of which West Park’s President and CEO, Anne-Marie Malek, is a member of stewardship. The U of T Centre for Sustainable Health Systems recently partnered with Canada Health Infoway to host a virtual seminar to showcase the environmental benefits associated with virtual care. During this session, the Centre for Sustainable Health Systems demonstrates that virtual care is carbon cost effective if there is a need for a patient to travel at least 3.6 km for a 1 hour appointment. They also describe the positive feedback loop connected to virtual care. Reduced carbon emissions results in mitigation of climate change associated impacts, which is demonstrated in the included graphic.

While the virtual response required for COVID-19 has been paramount, it has illustrated opportunities for alternative and innovative methods of care that have positive environmental benefits. These lessons learned could help inform the future of virtual care operations at West Park Healthcare Centre and within the Canadian healthcare system overall.

The Environmental Committee is Keeping It Green – Virtually!

The Environmental Sustainability Committee has reconvened using a virtual platform and is diligently monitoring the environmental impacts associated with the response to the COVID-19 Pandemic at the Centre. Members are actively evaluating opportunities to improve the Centre’s response to COVID-19 by identifying opportunities to continuously Reduce, Reuse & Recycle where safe and appropriate to do so.

Stay tuned for exciting initiatives underway and for updates on how you can help West Park ‘Keep It Green’ during these unusual times.

West Park Named Green Hospital of the Year!

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Mark Palmer, January 3, 2020

View this story and more at westpark.org.

In recognition of its commitment to environmental stewardship in greening its internal health care practices, West Park has received this year’s Green Health Care Award naming us 2018 Green Hospital of the Year (non-acute) by the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care.

The award is based on a comprehensive scorecard by which each participating hospital across Canada is measured. The scorecard reviews metrics related to energy use, water generation, recycling rate, leadership, policy and planning and more. West Park is proud to report the following:

•  A 21.1% year-over-year decrease in waste generation
•  A 4.1% year-over-year decrease in water usage
•  A 3rd consecutive year of below average energy use intensity (earning West Park an honourable mention in this category)

“The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change’s annual report for 2019 recently noted that Canada’s healthcare sector was the third-highest per-capita greenhouse gas emitter in the world [only behind The US and Japan] so we are pleased that our efforts have produced excellent results,” said Shelley Ditty, Vice President Campus Development and Support Services. “As we undergo construction of our new hospital development project we will maintain our focus on environmental sustainability.”

The Coalition recognized this focus by noting that West Park has made significant progress in all six policy and planning areas; environmentally preferable purchasing, toxins management, sustainable construction/renovation, energy, waste and water. The Centre’s scorecard also notes that leadership is reflected through commitment, support and outreach all of which can be attributed to management and staff efforts and by the presence of West Park’s Environmental Committee.

The committee has a number of important plans for 2020 including efforts to further decrease the use of single-use plastics and the planning of a second annual sustainability fair for staff and patients. “The Centre’s Environmental Committee is always looking for new and exciting ideas to raise awareness about the importance of doing our part to minimize our carbon footprint.” stated Diane Zdybal, Director of Support Services.

Congratulations everyone at West Park for Keeping it Green!

West Park Holiday Market – With a Green Twist

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Mark Palmer

This year on December 12, West Park presented a festive, fun, green holiday event for staff and patients – the West Park Holiday Market.

Due to the current campus construction, the hospital’s perennial Winterfest is hibernating for the next few years, but West Park partnered with the hospital’s Environmental Committee to offer a unique holiday experience inspired by the many holiday markets that happen every year in Toronto.

West Park’s Holiday Market included several vendors, including local environmentally sustainable companies and the Rotary Club’s holiday cake, cookie, and gingerbread house sale, as well as Recreation Therapy’s Helping Hands Beeswax Paper and Gemstone Bracelet sale. The Holiday Market also featured a food drive collection for the Daily Bread Food Bank, a holiday photo-booth, and travelling carolers to visit patients on their units. Staff members and patients experienced a traditionally decorated market with holiday music, while having their chance to buy unique gifts and win prizes!

Busy As Bees for Sustainability

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Patients from West Park’s Recreation Therapy were busy as bees leading up to the holidays, working away in their workshop to make specialty gifts that give back.

Introducing their creations at the West Park Holiday Market on Dec. 12, Recreation Therapy sold handmade beeswax food wraps along with handcrafted gemstone bracelets, with 100 per cent of proceeds going to the West Park Foundation.

“Our patients were adamant about wanting all of the money made from the sale to go to the Foundation,” says Naomi Max, a recreation therapy assistant, who says the patients wanted to use their Helping Hands program budget towards the cost of materials to accomplish their fundraising efforts.

The project was decided upon back in September, and patients were working almost every week to achieve their goal of making at least 100 beeswax food wraps. The extensive process included cutting up fabric – which took three weeks alone – smashing pine nuts to create resin, melting the ingredients, coating the fabric, and baking and drying the fabric.

The food wraps are 100 per cent organic, food safe, and environmentally friendly, consisting only of fabric, organic beeswax, organic pine resin, and organic jojoba oil. The food wraps were available in various sizes, colours and patterns, with each sheet selling for $5 or three sheets for $12.

The gift that keeps on giving, the food wraps should last up to a year, with the donated cost going much further towards the new hospital build. Gemstone bracelets, made from high-quality stones and beads, varied in price – depending on the beads used – from $10 to $20. They also included messages of motivation and aspiration, each one a unique representation of the patient who made it. 

Life is Better at the Lake…

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Kendra Rainford, September 16, 2019

Hats off to our Environmental Committee as they helped clean up Sunnyside Beach on Saturday, September 14, 2019. The external event facilitated by Parley for the Oceans, is one of the 50 beach clean-ups happening coast to coast throughout the summer. Alongside dozens of other community members, a group from our very own Environmental Committee spent the morning retrieving everything from beads of Styrofoam scattered in the sand, to plastic straws and bottle caps lodged in driftwood. The plastic retrieved from the now-much-cleaner shoreline has been given a second chance to be upcycled and (more importantly) kept out of our beautiful Lake Ontario.

Kudos to West Park Environmental Committee members Clara Phillips, Jay Vagh and John Richmond for their participation. Thank you for making a difference!

Recreation Therapy is Helping West Park to Keep it GREEN!

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Mark Palmer, August 7, 2019

View this story and more at westpark.org.

Recreation Therapy has been making a conscious effort to monitor the resources used during programs to ensure the department is operating in an environmentally responsible manner. “We are all conscious of environmentally sustainable operations,” says Naomi Max, Environmental Committee member and Recreation Therapy Assistant. “Over the last few months the Recreation Therapy team has worked to reduce, reuse and recycle resources in programming in many creative ways to eliminate unnecessary waste” says Naomi.  

The most environmentally sustainable option is to reduce and reuse where possible. One resource all West Park team members are actively trying to use less of is: paper. The recreation therapy team significantly decreased their paper usage by reducing the amount of Program Calendars printed at the Centre. Formerly, 260 legal-sized Program Calendars were printed and distributed to clinical areas and patients each month. Now patients receive the calendar in an electronic format by e-mail and only one paper copy is distributed per unit. In addition to the positive environmental impact, the patient feedback was that the electronic text is much larger and more accessible to read for all.  

Recreation therapy is even greening the garden program with an in-house curricular economy supported by cross-programming. In the gardening program, patients grow vegetables and herbs on site. Later, they will be harvested and used for cooking programs in recreation therapy. “We grow everything, from cucumbers, to peppers and herbs!” says Naomi. This eliminates the need for vegetables to be transported or purchased for certain programs and reduces packaging purchased that comes with most grocery store veggies.  It doesn’t get fresher that that!

Pub night has even gone green! Pub night is a weekly social event enjoyed by many West Park patients but the Recreation team couldn’t help but notice how many styrofoam and plastic cups are being generated at each event. So the team made the switch to eco stripe compostable cups and ordered a composting bin to dispose of all waste generated in an environmentally responsible way.

In addition to these great greening strategies, Recreation Therapy is constantly monitoring their craft supply inventory to eliminate unnecessary purchases and reduce waste. One craft allowed West Park patients to unleash their inner artist while painting. Their canvas? Empty wine bottles from pub night!

In another program patients designed succulent terrariums. These low-maintenance terrarium arrangements are now used as beautiful living centerpieces at other Recreation Therapy events.

But the greening doesn’t stop there… this last green craft is sure to melt your dog-goneheart!

Recreation Therapy participates in a community program they call ‘Helping Hands’ where patients craft materials or items that can be used by those in need within our community. Using only a recent donation of clean mix-matched colorful socks, several yards of scrap material and of course, a lot of love – the West Park Recreation therapy team and patients are making hundreds of 100% recycled puppy and dog toys for all of our four-legged friends in need at the Toronto Humane Society. What a treat!

Pictured below are Naomi Max’s dogs, Cashew and Bam Bam, happily testing the product prototypes!

Please join the Environmental Committee in acknowledging the West Park Healthcare Centre Recreation Therapy team in their continuous effort and dedication to support Sustainable Healthcare Operations every day!

Does your department or program make efforts to keep it green during operations? Let us know! Email Kendra.rainford@westpark.org to share your tips and tricks with the Centre!

Help West Park Eliminate Plastic Water Bottles

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Mark Palmer, July 29, 2019

View this story and more at westpark.org.

Did you know?

Less than 11% of plastic in Canada is recycled.

Approximately 90% of all plastic used in Canada finds its way to landfills, green spaces, communities and water posing threat to the environment. 

The Environmental Committee is currently reviewing all plastic waste being generated in the Centre and creating a plan of action to reduce, reuse and recycle anywhere possible! Stay tuned for more updates on exciting environmental projects taking place!

Helping to Eliminate Plastic!

West Park Healthcare Centre employees, physicians and volunteers are helping eliminate single-use plastics by committing to the use a reusable water bottle. On July 25 all were encouraged to bring their own reusable water bottles to the  Environmental Committee display outside the Cafeteria to fill their reusable water bottle with free refreashments. As well, Cool straw was on location selling reusable stainless steel cups, water bottles and other eco-products to help eliminate single-use plastics.

References:

Environmental Defence Canada. Canada’s Plastic Problem. https://environmentaldefence.ca/canadas-plastic-pollution-problem/. 2019

Alliance for the Great Lakes. 5 Ways Plastic Pollutions is Different in the Great Lakes. https://greatlakes.org/2018/06/5-ways-plastic-pollution-is-different-in-the-great-lakes/.  2019