Agenda

Please note: this event is in-person only.

7:35 am

Doors open and registration

8:00 am - 8:30 am

Breakfast

8:30 am - 8:45 am

Speakers:
- Ann Kurth, PhD, CNM, MPH, President, The New York Academy of Medicine; Event co-chair
- Dr. María P. Neira, Director, Environment, Climate Change, and Health, World Health Organization (pre-recorded)
- Jodi Sherman, MD, Director, Yale Program on Healthcare Environmental Sustainability; Event co-chair

8:45 am - 9:15 am

9:15 am - 10:15 am

Description:
Developing sustainable, climate-ready cities is key to help support healthier populations and ecosystems. Ensuring healthcare and public health systems are integrated into adaptation planning is vital. This panel will review sustainable urban planning methods already being used to implement data-driven long-term solutions that improve health, health system resilience and sustainability. Leadership engagement and financing mechanisms for health system adaptation will also be covered.
Speakers:
- Eric Berzon, MBA, Former Vice President and Assistant Treasurer - Finance, Kaiser Permanente
- Anna Goldman, MD, MPH, MPA, Medical Director of Climate and Sustainability, Boston Medical Center
- Lauren Sorkin, MS, Executive Director, Resilient Cities Network
Moderator:
- Megan L. Ranney, MD, MPH, FACEP, Dean, Yale School of Public Health

10:15 am - 10:30 am

Break

10:30 am - 11:30 am

Description:
As climate risks escalate and traditional risk management measures falter, commercial and property insurers face mounting challenges in providing coverage. However, the impact on health insurers remains largely unexplored. With climate events are intensifying in both frequency and severity, health insurers may soon confront increased mortality and morbidity rates, prompting urgent questions about proactive mitigation strategies. Global population data already reveals alarming climate-related health impacts, disproportionately affecting the elderly and vulnerable populations who already struggle with healthcare costs and adequate health protection. This session delves into how these phenomena may translate into risks for insurers, while also examining the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in safeguarding insurability within the broader policy landscape governing health and climate.
Speakers:
- Adrita Bhattacharya-Craven, MSc, Research Director, Health and Demography, The Geneva Association
- Maria McGowan, BA, Global Underwriting and Claims Risk Manager for Manulife
- Madeleine Thomson, PhD, Head of Climate Impacts and Adaptation, Wellcome
Moderator:
- Joe Bialowitz, MS, MSc, Former National Environmental Program Leader, Kaiser Permanente

11:30 am - 12:30 pm

Description:
Worker well-being is fundamental to resilient health systems, yet clinician shortages and burnout remain a problem worldwide. Health systems need to predict workforce capacity, and re-design care delivery to ensure continuous quality care delivery during disaster and recovery. Healthcare workers value employers that act as good corporate citizens with respect to environmental performance, and that support their workforces through crises and quiescence. Clinicians can help lead climate mitigation and adaptation efforts but need preparation and support. These colliding challenges can be harnessed into integrated opportunities to accelerate health care system transformation, one in which clinicians and health care delivery systems catalyze sustainable health care systems that build patient and community climate resilience – and revitalizing the workforce in the process.
Speakers:
- Pamela F. Cipriano, PhD, RN, Vice-President, International Council of Nurses; Dean & Sadie Heath Cabiniss Professor, University of Virginia School of Nursing
- Oliver Eitelwein, PhD, Partner, Oliver Wyman Health and Life Sciences
- Renee Salas, MD, MPH, Founding Director, The Cooperative; Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School
Moderator:
- Omnia El Omrani, MD, Imperial College London

12:30 pm - 1:30 pm

Lunch and networking

1:30 pm - 2:30 pm

Description:
The global funding community must now consider new ways of working together to match the urgency of the climate crisis and its impacts on health and healthcare.
Speakers:
- Melinda K. Abrams, MS, Executive Vice President for Programs, The Commonwealth Fund
- Brent Sandmeyer, MPH, Senior Program Officer, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
- Alexis Feeney Tallman, MBA, Managing Director, Health Initiative, The Rockefeller Foundation
- Madeleine Thomson, PhD, Head of Climate Impacts and Adaptation, Wellcome
Moderator:
- Ann Kurth, PhD, CNM, MPH, President, The New York Academy of Medicine

2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

Description:
While sustainable solutions exist for healthcare facility operations and energy management, clinical care must also be transformed including health promotion, disease prevention, environmentally preferable practices and resource stewardship. This panel covers novel innovations in staff and patient engagement, supply chain management, hospital food management, and healthcare organization leadership. International tools to guide evidence-based sustainable solutions will be shared.
Speakers:
- David Callaway, MD, MPA, Professor of Emergency Medicine, Carolinas Medical Center; Chief of Crisis Operations and Sustainability, Advocate Health
- Andrea MacNeill, MD, Director, Planetary Healthcare Lab, University of British Columbia; Co-Director, Lancet Commission on Sustainable Healthcare
- Fiona Miller, PhD, Director, CASCADES - Creating a Sustainable Canadian Health System in a Climate Crisis, University of Toronto
Moderator:
- Caren G. Solomon, MD, MPH, Deputy Editor, New England Journal of Medicine; Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital

3:30 pm - 3:45 pm

Break

3:45 pm - 4:45 pm

Description:
The UN Secretary-General warns that decarbonization pledges must be matched with measurable data and calls for zero tolerance for greenwashing. Greenwashing risks failure to meet commitments to mitigate pollution and avert the worst predicted threats to national and global security. Standardized, transparent reporting and accountability for entities and products are essential to identify best practices and drive evidence-based decarbonization. This panel will review key laws and regulatory levers in the EU and US (SEC and California) to avert greenwashing by compelling standard disclosures and science-based mitigation targets, as well as examples of climate litigation. Leading health system Environmental Social Governance (ESG) reporting experience will be shared, including challenges and opportunities for supply chain management. Latest developments around Product Category Rules will also be explored.
Speakers:
- Donna Drummond, BS, Senior Vice President, Chief Expense Officer, and Chief Sustainability Officer, Northwell Health
- Matthew Eckelman, PhD, Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Northeastern University
- Kristina Wyatt, JD, MBA, Deputy General Counsel and Chief Sustainability Officer, Persefoni
Moderator:
- Gabriella Mickel, JD, LLM, MEM, Center for Applied Environmental Law and Policy

4:45 pm -5:15 pm

Speaker:
- Marina Romanello, PhD, Executive Director, Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change

Speakers:
- Ann Kurth, PhD, CNM, MPH, President, The New York Academy of Medicine; Event co-chair
- Jodi Sherman, MD, Director, Yale Program on Healthcare Environmental Sustainability; Event co-chair

5:15 pm - 5:30 pm

5:30 pm - 6:30 pm

Reception