Finger Lakes Health and Sustainability Conference – Register by September 1 and save! Health care professionals, educators, local officials and planners are invited to join leaders in the community sustainability movement at the regional Health and Sustainability Conference on September 15. Sustainable Tompkins and the Ithaca College School of Health Sciences and Human Performance are hosting the conference. Our goal is to start a regional conversation between health care practitioners, elected officials, and local citizens about how to design our communities, workplaces, schools and homes in ways that support our health. Health is a primary indicator of the viability of our communities and everyone is affected by conditions that diminish our prospects for good public health. We need to do a better job of working together to change the worrisome trends we face in obesity-related disease and exposure to environmental toxins. We simply can’t afford the growing costs of these epidemics. The conference, held at Ithaca College’s Hill Center, will link emerging public health issues with sustainable living concepts. Speakers from around the country and across the region will share solutions and help us see current health problems as connected and solvable in new ways. University of Wisconsin medical researcher Jonathan Patz will outline the growing threats to public health of intensified heat waves, sprawl development, and chemical exposures and how to reduce these risks by rethinking how we live and work. Patz has briefed Congress on the health risks associated with climate change. Marie Kulick, author of Healthy Food, Healthy Hospitals, Healthy Communities, will talk about the importance of providing fresh, healthy foods for hospital patients and staff. Kulick is a senior associate in the Food and Health program of the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis. She is leading a pilot farm-to-hospital program in the Midwest to find ways to bring locally-grown and organic foods to patient rooms and hospital cafeterias. Kulick will also introduce the “Green Guide to Health Care,” a system of best practices for the healthcare industry. Derek Cabrera, a visiting fellow at Cornell University and founder of ThinkWorks, will share ideas about using whole systems thinking in the health care field. Cabrera has published articles in the American Journal of Public Health about the practical application of these methods in tobacco control and other complex public health problems. Also speaking at the conference is Sandra Steingraber, who has been called the “new Rachel Carson.” She is the author of Living Downstream: An Ecologist Looks at Cancer and the Environment, in which she describes her own experience as a scientist stricken with an environmental cancer. Other speakers, consultants, and exhibitors from upstate NY will present information on designing communities for active living, improving nutrition, and ways to introduce environmentally preferable purchasing, building design, and operations in a health care setting. Conference attendees will have a chance to network with colleagues and consultants at topic tables during the lunch hour. At the closing reception, local chefs will offer their entries in a healthy dessert competition featuring local and organic ingredients, and door prizes related to healthy living will be awarded. The Health and Sustainability Conference was organized by Sustainable Tompkins and is sponsored by the Ithaca College School of Health Sciences and Human Performance. Supporters include the Park Foundation, Tompkins County Solid Waste Management Division, NYSERDA, Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, Tompkins-Cortland Community College Department of Nursing, HOLT Architects, and Cayuga Medical Center. The conference is open to all, and interested citizens are encouraged to attend. For more information and to register, contact the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, _www.tompkinschamber.org_ () , 607-273-7080. Register by September 1 to get early bird rate of only $25!
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