[SustainableTompkins] Conference Presents Sustainable Solutions to Health Threats

[GayNicholson at aol.com]

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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