New podcast ignites conversation about climate sustainability in healthcare

BREWER — On Earth Day and every day, Northern Light Health is igniting conversation around how climate change affects our patients, our staff, and our organizations, as well as why we should care enough to do something about it. This past week, Northern Light Health launched our sustainability healthcare podcast, as part of our Healthy, Happy, and Wise podcast series.

In our first episode, podcast host and Northern Light Health Chief Environmental Sustainability Officer Tim Doak talks with Jonathan Slutzman, MD, director of the Center for the Environment and Health and the medical director for Environmental Sustainability at Massachusetts General Hospital about the connections between our health and our changing climate, and what hospitals can do to be a part of the solution. He shares, “Healthcare is a huge contributor to climate change, and it’s particularly important because it’s contrary to our mission. If we can’t do what we need to do, people’s lives suffer. It is the single largest health threat facing the world in this century. We need to overcome this. We need to lead by example.”

Listeners can access the podcast from our website (https://northernlighthealth.org/HealthyHappyWise), Apple, YouTube, and Spotify.

In 2023 Northern Light Health signed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Sector Climate Pledge to reduce emissions 50 percent by 2023 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Between 2021 (our baseline year) and 2022, we have already realized a 10.2 percent drop in overall greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, our commitment to sustainability involves a robust Climate Resiliency Plan. For more on Northern Light Health Climate Sustainability efforts, visit Sustainability – Northern Light Health (https://northernlighthealth.org/sustainability).