Climate change is the
biggest global health threat
of the 21st century
The University of Pittsburgh Office of Sustainability in the Health Sciences seeks to develop sustainable health care practices by decarbonizing our own operations, training eco-literate future healthcare leaders, and researching sustainable solutions that improve human and planetary health.
Announcements
View the One Health Day Plenary Talk The Brain, Climate Change, and the Future We Choose by Ann-Christine Duhaime.
Learn more about our office below!
Events
One Health Day
On Friday, November 14th, we explored the critical role of sustainability in advancing global health.
Activities include:
· A plenary talk by Dr. Ann-Christine Duhaime, senior pediatric neurosurgeon at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the Nicholas T. Zervas Distinguished Professor of Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School, titled The Brain, Climate Change, and the Future We Choose.
· Student poster and research competitions
· Announcement of the Sustainable Healthcare Challenge winners
Planetary Health Journal Club
- January 2026
- November 2025
- September 2025
- May 2025
- March 2025
- January 2025
- November 2024
- September 2024
- May 2024
- March 2024
- Presenter: Nathan Schneider, PhD Student, Center for Neurosciences, School of Medicine
- Topic: The Human Health Effects of Noise Pollution
- Location: 4575 Scaife Hall or via Zoom (link provided upon RSVP)
- We provide a healhy body, healthy planet lunch. Please RSVP to ensure we have enough food.
Journal Article: Combining evidence-based health care with environmental sustainability: using the toothbrush as a model
Presenters: Noel Do, Emma Nordin, and Ean Maxwell, School of Dental Medicine
Journal Articles:
- The impact of climate change and biodiversity loss on the health of children: An ethical perspective
- Impact of prior and projected climate change on US Lyme disease incidence
Presenter: Puja Dutta, School of Medicine, Physician Scientist Training Program
Topic: Climate Change as a Social Determinant of Health
Journal Article: Modern Diets and the Health of Our Planet: An Investigation into the Environmental Impacts of Food Choices
Presenter: Jenny Snyder, Student in Dietitian Nutritionist Program
Journal Article: The environmental impact of data-driven precision medicine initiatives
Presenter: Becky King, Health Informatics Graduate Student
Journal Article: Microalgae, a current option for the bioremediation of pharmaceuticals & Minimizing the environmental impact of unused pharmaceuticals: Review focused on prevention
Presenter: Ainsley Lederer, PhD Student, School of Pharmacy
Jounral Article: Waste audits in healthcare: A systematic review and description of best practices
Presenter: Abhimanyu Nangunoori, B.S. Economics and Biological Sciences
Journal Article: Reducing plastic in the operating theatre: Towards a more cicrular economy for medical products and packaging
Presenter: Nathalia Cano, PhD candidate, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Journal Article: Health Care Pollution and Public Health Damage in the United States: An Update
Presenter: Monet Weldon, Medical Student
Journal Article: The 2023 report of Lancet Countdown on health and climate change: the imperative for a health-centered response in a world facing irreversible harms
Presenter: Divya Natesan, Medical Student
Every other month, faculty, staff, students, and community members meet to critically evaluate articles that address topics around climate change and health. This is an excellent event to network and explore research specific to sustainable health care.
Research
Congratulations to the 2025
Sustainability in Healthcare Challenge Winners!
$50,000
- Flipping the Paradigm: Using lessons from a comparative assessment of surgical supplyuse in high and low resource settings to develop a Green OR pilot at UPMC – Drs. Jennifer Makin, Nat Jones, Noe Woods, Amanda Artsen, Pamela Moalli, and Neha Shetty.
$25,000
- DRDIN-MPS: A Sustainable, Patient-Specific Microphysiology Platform for Diabetes DrugDiscovery – Drs. Ipsita Banerjee, Chandan Sen, Michael Boninger, Raghunath Bommana Reddy, and Erin Parlow
- Reducing Lab Plastic waste through Reuse of “Single-Use” Consumables – Dr. David Gau,Dr. Melissa Bilec, Grace Tuan, and Dylan Shields
- Closing the Loop: A Multi-Layer Mask System to Capture, Convert, and NeutralizeAnesthetic Gases – Drs. Nitin Agarwal, Shaunak Patil, Janam Patel, and Ayesha Waheed
$2,500 Student Funding
- Incorporating a Sustainability Framework in Bioengineering Laboratory Education –Aqsa Owais & Tyler Johnston, Bioengineering
- Eat Well & Waste Less: Sustainable Cooking and Composting Education for HealthScience Students – Cynthia McMahan, Erica Fan, School of Medicine and Jenny Snyder, SHRS
Education
The Planetary Health Report Card is a metric-based tool for evaluating and improving planetary health content in health professional schools. Students from Pitt’s Schools of Dental Medicine, Medicine, and Pharmacy completed report cards for their schools during the last reporting cycle (2024-25).
Pitt’s Clinical Partner
A world-renowned health care provider and insurer, UPMC combines clinical and research excellence to deliver high-quality care for patients from Western Pennsylvania and across the globe. The Schools of the Health Sciences work closely with UPMC to ensure that health care delivery, biomedical research, and education are equally robust and continuously evolving.
Our Partners
