Climate Change and Environmental Health Resources

The following online resources were compiled to help Region VIII health centers stay informed about climate change, the role healthcare plays in addressing climate change, and how environmental factors impact patient health. Please contact the CHAMPS Clinical Quality Improvement Director if you have any questions about these materials or would like to share other useful resources you have found.

Please click or scroll down for:
Fact Sheets, Reports, and Statistics
Resources Addressing the Role of Healthcare
Grants and Funding Resources
Healthcare Provider Resources
Patient Resources
Education and Training Resources
Plant-Based Diet Resources
Other Recommended Resources

FACT SHEETS, REPORTS, AND STATISTICS

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
Environmental Justice Index (EJI)
The Environmental Justice Index uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to rank the cumulative impacts of environmental injustice on health for every census tract.

American Communities Project
Report: Mapping Climate Risks by County and Community (February 17, 2021)
The American Communities Project leveraged data from Four Twenty-Seven, a physical climate risk data firm, to understand how the climate risks manifest where populations and infrastructure may be especially vulnerable.

American Lung Association
Report: Discussing Links Between Climate Change and Community Health (May 31, 2021)
The American Lung Association released its 2021 State of the Air Report, a national data resource on air pollutants and pollution levels across the United States.

Colorado Environmental Public Health Tracking
Heat-Related Illness Data
This is a dataset that shares heat-related illness data in Colorado.

EcoAmerica
Report: American Climate Perspectives Survey (May 26, 2021)
The American Climate Perspectives Survey, from EcoAmerica, demonstrates how to ignite climate action across the country, Americans need to be engaged locally, whether they are from rural, semi-rural, suburban, or urban communities.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
EJScreen: Environmental Justice Screening and Mapping Tool
The newly updated and redesigned EJScreen, is a publicly available, award-winning environmental justice (EJ) screening and mapping tool.

Climate Change and Children’s Health Report
This report quantifies projected health effects to children from climate change. The report considers factors such as extreme heat, air quality, changing seasons, flooding, and infectious diseases. The analyses consider the extent to which these risks disproportionately fall on children from overburdened populations.

Health and Environmental Funders Network (HEFN)
Investing at the Frontlines of Climate Change
This toolkit is a joint effort by eight philanthropy-serving organizations (PSOs). Resources related to climate, health, and equity work are included in this toolkit.

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Report: Climate Change 2022: Impact, Adaptation, and Vulnerability (February 27, 2022)
This Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report shows climate change’s current and future impacts on physical and mental health.

The National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine
Report: Greenhouse Gas Emissions Information for Decision Making (October 4, 2020)
This report examines existing and emerging approaches used to generate and evaluate greenhouse gas emissions information from local to global levels and develops a framework for evaluating greenhouse gas emissions information to support and guide policymakers.

National Climate Assessment (NCA)
Fourth National Climate Assessment
The National Climate Assessment (NCA) assesses the science of climate change and variability and its impacts across the United States, now and throughout this century.

Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
Report: Health Costs from Climate Change and Fossil Fuel Pollution Tops $820 Billion a Year (May 20, 2021)
This report shows the health costs of climate change and how the burden falls heaviest on vulnerable communities.

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
Poll: Facing Extreme Weather is Changing Americans’ Views About Need for Climate Change Action (June 21, 2021)
This poll finds that facing extreme weather events is impacting Americans’ views about the need for climate change action.

The Center for American Progress (CAP)
How the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity Can Respond to the Health Threats of the Climate Crisis
This report was published on January 30, 2023. This resource examines how OCCHE can provide the connective tissue needed to harness resources, leverage authorities, and coordinate expertise across HHS and the federal government in order to protect the nation’s health from risks associated with climate change.

The Lancet
Report: The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change 2022
Published annually, the Lancet Countdown on health and climate change is an international, multidisciplinary collaboration, dedicated to monitoring the evolving health profile of climate change, and providing an independent assessment of the delivery of commitments made by governments worldwide under the Paris Agreement.

Trust for America’s Health (TFAH)
Article: Navigating Climate-Related Threats to the Public’s Health (August 29, 2023)
This article highlights the climate challenges the United States has faced in 2023, identifies the responses taken by the Biden-Harris Administration, and emphasizes the importance of preparing for weather-related events for public health emergency preparedness.

Report: Climate Change & Health: Assessing State Preparedness (December 9, 2020)
This report assessed all 50 states and the District of Columbia on their level of preparedness for the health effects of climate change and found a great deal of variation in their level of preparedness.

Report: Climate Change & Health Case Study: Advancing Distributional Equity in Climate Adaptation (October 13, 2021)
Climate change is an international phenomenon but its effects, including its impacts on human health, are local – often depending on geography, weather patterns, and a community’s resources and degree of resilience, including the historic and current-day consequences of racism.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Climate and Health Outlook
The Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE) has created the Climate and Health Outlook. This resource provides an updated evaluation and seasonal forecast.

World Economic Forum
Quantifying the Impact of Climate Change on Human Health (January 16, 2024)
This report provides an in-depth economic analysis of how climate change will reshape health landscapes over the next two decades.

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication
Yale Climate Opinion Maps 2023
This version of the Yale Climate Opinion Maps is based on data through fall 2021. This national survey shows that American opinions about global warming widely depend on where people live.

RESOURCES ADDRESSING THE ROLE OF HEALTHCARE

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
Reducing Healthcare Carbon Emissions: A Primer on Measures and Actions for Healthcare Organizations to Mitigate Climate Change
As a significant contributor to climate change, the healthcare sector faces an urgent call to action to reduce its carbon footprint and protect communities from climate threats.

Americares
The Climate Resilience for Frontline Clinics Toolkit
This website provides useful resources for leadership at community health centers to meet the challenges of climate change.

Capital Link
Building Resilient Health Center Facilities Utilizing Solar and Storage Microgrids
A resource that explores the benefits, opportunities, challenges, and financing resources for CHCs looking to install solar and storage microgrids.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) Framework
This webpage contains information on the Building Resilience Against Climate Effects (BRACE) framework. BRACE is a five-step process that allows health officials to develop strategies and programs to help communities prepare for the health effects of climate change.

CHARGE Partnership
CHARGE Partnership
Community Health Access to Resilient Green Energy (CHARGE) is a nationwide clean energy program for Federally Qualified Health Centers.

CleanMed
CleanMed Annual Conference
CleanMed is the premier national conference for leaders in healthcare sustainability. It is the platform for healthcare leaders to convene, collaborate, and conduct societal transformation for individual, community, and planetary health.

Collective Energy Company
Collective Energy Company
This webpage provides information on the Collective Energy Company’s mission to educate health centers about their energy options, how to design power solutions based on health centers’ site-specific needs, and how to access low-cost funding that is only available to non-profit health centers.

Commitment to Action-2022 Clinton Global Initiative
A video containing Secretary Hillary Clinton’s endorsement of the important role Federally Qualified Health Centers play in the rising energy burden in the United States.

Direct Relief
The Power for Health Initiative
Direct Relief has launched The Power for Health initiative to help ensure nonprofit community health centers and charitable clinics in the U.S. maintain power and remain operational through increasingly common power outages resulting from disasters and electrical grid failures.

EcoAmerica
Climate for Health
EcoAmerica’s Climate for Health program partners with America’s leading health associations and institutions to make climate change a top national health priority.

Health Affairs
Adding a Climate Lens to Health Policy in the United States
This report reviews how healthcare policymakers must integrate a climate lens as they develop health system interventions.

HealthCare Without Harm
Guidance for Health Care Climate Action
The proven practices shared by healthcare organizations to develop step-by-step guidance for sustainable, climate-smart care.

Healthcare Without Harm
This webpage contains resources on how healthcare can reduce its environmental footprint.

How Hospitals in 17 Countries Are Tackling Decarbonization & Resilience, Saving Them $15M
This article shares the initiatives many healthcare organizations took that proved climate-smart healthcare is economically viable.

John Snow Inc.
Circular Economy and Greening Health Supply Chains
This resource addresses the global climate crisis and environmental disasters through the work of public health and education. It covers the approaches to integrating climate and environmental considerations into operations.

My Green Doctor
My Green Doctor
My Green Doctor is a program geared towards healthcare practices to help guide clinics to make sustainable environmental choices save money and make the office healthier.

National Academy of Medicine (NAM)
Healthcare Leaders Speak Out on Climate Change
Hear directly from healthcare leaders about the urgent need to tackle the climate crisis to protect health and equity, and how their organizations are taking action.

Grand Challenge on Climate Change, Human Health, and Equity
This multi-year global initiative is to improve and protect human health, well-being, and equity by working to transform systems that both contribute to and are impacted by climate change

National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC)
Emergency Preparedness/Emergency Management Requirements
This document helps community health center staff enhance their understanding and ensure compliance with the emergency management requirements associated with The Joint Commission (TJC) Standards and Center of Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) E-Tag requirements.

Environmental Health and Climate Change Initiatives
This page shares resources regarding community health centers addressing environmental health and climate change issues.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
Climate Change and Human Health Literature Portal
A bibliographic database that offers access to global peer-reviewed research and gray literature on the science of climate impacts on human health.

Practice Greenhealth
Sustainability Solutions for Health Care
Practice Greenhealth is a healthcare membership organization that provides sustainability solutions that benefit patients and employees, communities, financial security, and the environment.

STAT
How the Inflation Reduction Act Can Help Decarbonize the Health Care Industry
This opinion article discusses how the Inflation Reduction Act can help decrease greenhouse gas emissions from the healthcare industry in the United States.

The New England Journal of Medicine
After COP26 — Putting Health and Equity at the Center of the Climate Movement
This New England Journal of Medicine Perspective, calling for direct action on climate change and health equity, includes input from the U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health, the Senior Advisor on Climate Health and Equity, and other officials from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) noting that healthcare accounts for 8.5 percent of overall U.S. carbon emissions with a disproportionate impact on at-risk communities.

The Public Library of Science (PLOS)
Good Practices: Co-Producing Integrated Climate, Environment and Health Services
This resource resynthesizes a set of good practices and approaches derived from experience, gap analyses, expert opinions, evaluations, and research findings on the application of climate science and the development of climate services for the health sector. Employing these principles can guide actors toward more successful partnerships and outcomes.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Catalytic Program on Utilizing the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)
This program supports healthcare organizations to take advantage of the tax credits, grants, and other supports made available by the IRA. This creates opportunities for healthcare organizations to make investments in clean energy, building efficiency, infrastructure resilience, and more.

Climate, Health, and Equity
This document outlines eight critical roles for HHS in addressing the climate emergency and proposes specific actions across the Department and its component agencies to carry out these roles.

Climate Change & Health Equity Resources
The Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE) created a list of climate change data tools and resources.

Healthcare Sector Commitments to Emissions Reduction and Resilience
The Healthcare Sector Climate Pledge invites organizations to commit to lowering their greenhouse gas emissions and building more climate-resilient infrastructure.

Health Sector Resource Hub
This webpage includes resources, tools, and informational materials to help the health sector accelerate the work of emissions reduction and climate resilience.

HHS History and the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity
This webpage explores the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) responsibility to safeguard the public from climate change, including the inequities it exacerbates.

U.S. House of Representative Ways and Means Committee
Report: Healthcare and the Climate Crisis: Preparing America’s Healthcare Infrastructure
The Ways and Means Committee released a new report detailing the role the U.S. health system plays in the climate crisis.

World Resources Institute
How Climate Change Affects Health and How Countries Can Respond
This website discusses how climate change will increase the strain on health services around the world.

GRANTS AND FUNDING RESOURCES

Anthropocene Alliance
Find Expertise and Partners for Environmental Justice Projects
Community organizations and other under-resourced entities interested in receiving pro bono assistance to create/envision projects for federal funding opportunities can complete this survey.

Argonne National Laboratory
Refueling Infrastructure Tax Credit Frequently Asked Questions
These Frequently Asked Questions were developed in consultation with the Department of Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service and reflect guidance on IRS Notice 2024-20.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
2023 Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Community Selectees
In December 2023, EPA announced $600 million to 11 Grantmakers to fund thousands of environmental justice projects across the nation over the next three years. This new grant program will make it easier for small community-based organizations to access federal environmental justice funding and access the benefits of the largest climate investment in history. Communities will be able to apply to a Grantmaker for a subgrant to fund a range of different environmental project activities, including (but not limited to) small local clean-ups, local emergency preparedness and disaster resiliency programs, environmental workforce development programs for local jobs reducing greenhouse gas emissions, fenceline air quality and asthma-related projects, healthy homes programs, and projects addressing illegal dumping. Funding should be available in the summer of 2024.

Environmental and Climate Justice Community Change Grants Program
A one-page infographic describes the differences between two EPA Inflation Reduction Act funding opportunities available through November 21, 2024.

Environmental Justice Thriving Communities Grantmaking Program
This grant opportunity will provide funds to community-based nonprofit organizations, tribes, and local governments supporting underserved communities and marginalized populations.

Inflation Reduction Act Community Change Grants Program
EPA has announced a Notice of Funding Opportunity for approximately two billion dollars in Inflation Reduction Act funds in environmental and climate justice activities to benefit disadvantaged communities through projects that reduce pollution, increase community climate resilience, and build community capacity to address environmental and climate justice challenges.

National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC)
EPA Environmental Justice Community Change Grant Funding Opportunity
Slide deck from the January 2024 NACHC Environmental Health Team’s presentation detailing tax credits, grants, and other funding resources available to health centers to develop solar microgrids and other energy-saving programs at their facilities.

Opportunity Finance Network (OFN)
Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF)
This fund was authorized under the Inflation Reduction Act and administered by the EPA. GGRF is a $27 billion federal investment that addresses the climate crisis, especially in the rural, urban, and Native communities most impacted by climate change and left behind by mainstream finance.

Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP)
Funding Opportunities
This page has current climate change funding opportunities for tribal communities.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Quickfinder for Leveraging the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) for the Health Sector
The Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE) has developed a Quickfinder meant to help healthcare agencies identify funding opportunities that support energy resilience and emissions reduction.

U.S. Interagency Working Group on Coal and Power Plant Communities and Economic Revitalization
Energy Community Tax Credit Bonus
Included in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), the Energy Community Tax Credit Bonus applies a bonus of up to 10% (for production tax credits) or 10 percentage points (for investment tax credits) for projects, facilities, and technologies located in energy communities.

U.S. Office of Energy Justice and Equity (DOE)
Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program
DOE’s Office of Energy Justice and Equity administers the Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program in partnership with the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the IRS intended to increase the adoption of renewable energy facilities in underserved communities. This page includes program guidance and resources as well as application information.

HEALTHCARE PROVIDER RESOURCES

Airnow.gov
Protect Your Lungs from Wildfire Smoke or Ash
This fact sheet provides an overview of how individuals can protect themselves from wildfire smoke or ash.

Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments (ANHE)
Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments
The Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments is the only national nursing organization focused solely on the intersection of health and the environment. This webpage contains a compilation of helpful tools, databases, and other resources for the nurses interested in environmental health.

Global Nurses Climate Change Committee
This committee was formed in response to the urgency and need for health professionals to increase awareness and promote action that addresses climate change as a health imperative.

American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP)
Climate Change and Environmental Health
This position paper includes a call to action from AAFP, information about the health impacts of climate change, policy implications, and promotes climate-smart and climate-resilient communities.

American Nurse Journal
Climate Change Interventions
This article discusses how the nursing profession must address climate change to protect and promote human health. Addressing climate change through corporate social responsibility is urgent and timely in the COVID-19 disaster recovery period for the nursing profession.

Americares
The Climate Resilience for Frontline Clinics Toolkit
This website provides useful resources for healthcare providers, patients, and administrators at community health centers to meet the challenges of climate change.

Climate and Health Evaluation
This webpage contains videos that support grant recipients and practitioners in the field in conducting local evaluations of climate and health adaptation interventions to better understand and improve impact.

Climate and Health Program
This webpage contains information on the CDC’s Climate and Health Program which supports state, tribal, local, and territorial public health agencies as they prepare for the health impacts of a changing climate.

Clinical Guidelines
These clinical heat guidelines are for clinicians to create personalized plans for patients that will help ensure safe enjoyment of warmer months. Many groups can be sensitive to heat and the guidance has focused initially on children with asthma, pregnant women, and people with cardiovascular disease.

Heat and Health Risk Factor Screening Questionnaire
This questionnaire assesses risk factors for health harms from heat or poor air quality.

Heat and Medications – Guidance for Clinicians
This document alerts clinicians and patients to the impact that ambient heat may have on patients taking certain medications. This can facilitate the development of a medication plan for hot days.

Community Health Association of Mountain/Plains States (CHAMPS)
Protect Yourself From Wildfire Smoke
Patient education document that informs patients about the health effects of wildfire smoke as well as precautions to minimize exposure. Also available in Spanish.

Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate
Montana Health Professionals for a Healthy Climate
This website hopes to increase awareness amongst Montanans of the effects of climate change on the health of our patients, wildlife, and communities in Montana.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Climate Change and Health
This webpage has free continuing medical education courses available to healthcare professionals and anyone else who wants to learn more about climate change and health.

Ready
Ready Campaign
Ready is a National public service campaign designed to empower the American people to prepare for, respond to, and mitigate emergencies and disasters.

The Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health (MSCCH)
The Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health
This consortium provides opportunities for medical providers to get involved in addressing climate change and contains resources about equitable climate solutions that will protect and promote the health of all people.

State-Level Activity
This webpage provides climate change-related resources for each U.S. state.

The Office of Climate Change and Health Equity (OCCHE)
Protecting Vulnerable Patient Populations from Climate Hazards: A Referral Guide for Health Professionals
This resource is intended to inform education and referrals in clinical settings for patients who are vulnerable to climate change’s health impacts and can be used by health and human services providers to address climate-related threats.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Climate and Health Outlook
The Climate and Health Outlook is an effort to inform health professionals and the public on how our health may be affected in the coming months by climate events and provide resources to take proactive action.

Climate Change Resilience and Healthcare System Considerations
Climate change continues to negatively impact national security, environmental stability, and human health conditions. This resource provides an overview of climate trends in the U.S., outlining the impacts of climate-related illness and injury on health system operations, care delivery, and patient surge.

PATIENT RESOURCES

Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC)
Extreme Heat and Your Health
This page includes information about extreme heat, health effects, people at increased risk, tips to stay safe, and additional resources.

HeatRisk Dashboard
This is a portal into the heat resources for the nation and includes the HeatRisk Forecast Tool, details on local air quality, and actions to stay safe on hot days or days with poor air quality.

Colorado State University
Worker Health and Safety Resources
Wildfire smoke is harmful to human health and is especially burdensome to those with respiratory conditions like asthma. This webpage contains resources to help outdoor workers create a plan to protect themselves while working outdoors.

Public Health Communications Collaborative
Beat the Heat: Staying Safe in Extreme Conditions (English)
This guide includes information about extreme heat conditions, heat-related illness, and preparing for extreme heat in English.

Beat the Heat: Staying Safe in Extreme Conditions (Spanish)
This guide includes information about extreme heat conditions, heat-related illness, and preparing for extreme heat in Spanish.

The Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health
Patient Facing Resource (English)
Information about home electrification and weatherproofing for patients in English.

Patient Facing Resource (Spanish)
Information about home electrification and weatherproofing for patients in Spanish.

University of Colorado Health (UCH)
How to Stay Safe When Wildfires Generate Dangerous Air Pollution
This webpage contains information on how individuals can protect themselves from air pollution.

EDUCATION AND TRAINING RESOURCES

American Public Health Association (APHA)
Making the Connection: Climate Changes Health
A four-part webinar series cohosted by APHA and EcoAmerica that investigates the health impacts of climate change. The series explores the connection between climate change and key areas of health including allergies and asthma, health risks in children, mental health, and transportation and healthy community design as a mitigation approach.

Association of Schools and Programs of Public Health (ASPPH)
Climate Change & Health
This webpage of ASPPH’s Task Force on Climate Change and Health contains recommendations for collective action to reduce the impacts of climate change on population health. While resources are geared toward an academic public health audience, they underscore the need for partnerships between health care and public health.

Climate for Health
Climate for Health Ambassadors Training
This three-hour training equips health professionals with the knowledge, hands-on experience, and resources to speak and act confidently on climate change solutions.

Community Health Center, Inc.
Conversations on Health Care
This podcast episode provides an overview of the discussions held during the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28). The podcast focuses on health policy and innovation discussions with industry newsmakers from around the globe.

Center for Health Equity Education and Advocacy
Climate Health Organizing Fellows Program
This is a 6-month online program for health professionals to further their knowledge of the health equity implications of climate change and develop community organizing skills to create lasting change.

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Air Cleaners and Air Filters in the Home
This article discusses how to select the correct air cleaners and air filters for a home or office.

Climate Change and Human Health
This page includes information about how climate change affects human health and related resources.

Wildfire Smoke and Your Patients’ Health
Online course with information about the health effects associated with wildfire.

Wildland Fires and Smoke
This page includes information about wildland fire basics, an air quality data, indoor air quality, and wildfire smoke and research.

Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education
Global Consortium on Climate and Health Education
This website provides educational and training resources for health professional training institutions, health societies, and regional health organizations in order to create a global climate-ready health sector.

National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC)
Environment, Climate Change & Health: Federal Updates & Resources for Action
This webinar recorded on December 1, 2022, provides an overview of federal updates regarding the environment, climate change, and the impacts on health centers.

National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIH)
Climate Change, Air Pollution, and Health: What Lies Ahead
This NIH Climate Change and Health seminar series webinar is hosted by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and features Jonathan M. Samet, M.D., M.S., Colorado School of Public Health, and Tami Bond, Ph.D. , Colorado State University.

The Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health
Federal Funding for Patients and Communities: Resources for Community Health Centers
This toolkit provides patient-facing resources on home electrification and weatherproofing. It supports providers in having important conversations about home resilience measures and helps guide patients to resources on Rewiring.com, a site meant to help homeowners and renters access IRA funds.

The National Institute for Healthcare Management (NICHM)
Climate Impacts Mental Health: The Importance of Climate-Resilience
This recorded webinar explores the interconnectedness of climate change and mental health, focusing on climate resilience and what can be done to combat these issues.

Environmental Health
This webpage contains printable infographics and free pre-recorded webinars that provide information about the relationship between people and their environment and ways to promote human health and well-being.

The New England Journal of Medicine
Climate Change, Fossil-Fuel Pollution, and Children’s Health
This article discusses the consequences of fossil fuel pollution on children.

The Weitzman Institute
The Environment as a Social Determinant of Health
This presentation highlights the work of some of the world’s leading experts in environmental health and discusses the impact of heat on health, and how some innovative communities are using hyper-local data and AI to implement effective, targeted solutions.

Trust for America’s Health (TFAH)
Climate Change Case Studies Series
This two-part case studies series examines efforts by states and localities to conceptualize and implement climate change adaptation programs that are centered on equity.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Webinar Series: Accelerating Healthcare Sector Action on Climate Change and Health Equity
The webinar series features financing resources available to support facility investments in sustainable infrastructure development, as well as renewables and tools to support emergency preparedness and response.

World Health Organization (WHO)
Ambient (Outdoor) Air Pollution
This webpage contains information on ambient air pollution and how it is measured.

PLANT-BASED DIET RESOURCES

American College of Lifestyle Medicine
American College of Lifestyle Medicine
Lifestyle medicine is a medical specialty that uses therapeutic lifestyle interventions as a primary modality to treat chronic conditions including, but not limited to, cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, and obesity. This resource provides resources on the six pillars of lifestyle medicine including a whole-food, plant-predominant eating pattern, physical activity, restorative sleep, stress management, and avoidance of risky substances.

Farm Sanctuary
A Handy Guide to a Plant-Based Diet
This webpage provides a guide on how to choose plant-based food that is produced through sustainable and fair labor practices to support meaningful change for animals, humans, and our planet.

Because You Already Care: 23 Reasons to Leave Animals Off Your Plate in 2021
This resource provides a wide variety of reasons for individuals to transition to a plant-based diet.

Good Life Refuge
Plant-Centric Lifestyle Resources
This website offers tools to support a successful transition into a healthier plant-centric lifestyle.

Plant-Centric Nutrition and the Environment
This website provides educational resources about how our dietary choices impact our planet’s health.

The National Academies of Science, Engineering, Medicine
Alternative Protein Sources
The National Academies’ Food Forum hosted a workshop to explore the state of the science on alternative protein sources related to issues around diet quality, nutrition, and sustainability. This brief summarizes the discussions held during the workshop.

Nature
The Environmental Footprint of Global Food Production
This article provides a current global geospatial analysis that details the greenhouse gases emitted from different types of food production.

Phys.org
Vegan Diet has 30% of the Environmental Impact of a High Meat Diet
A news article detailing a 2023 study comparing the environmental impact of plant-based diets to high-meat diets.

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM)
A Vegan Diet: Eating for the Environment
A plant-based diet can have a significant positive impact on the environment and an individual’s overall health.

Shifting to Plant-Based Diets Can Help Mitigate Climate Change
This webpage has information on how shifting to a plant-based diet can help mitigate climate change.

Plant Based Telehealth
Lifestyle Telemedicine Appointments
Plant-based lifestyle medicine is the evidence-based practice of promoting healthy behaviors and lifestyle modification. This webpage offers free telemedicine appointments with a lifestyle medicine doctor.

Practice Greenhealth
Plant Powered 30
Plant Powered is a 30-day challenge to inspire individuals to choose a plant-forward meal once per day (and hopefully more!).

The Plant-Based Treaty
The Plant-Based Treaty
As a companion to the UNFCCC/Paris Agreement, The Plant-Based Treaty initiative is a grassroots campaign designed to put food systems at the forefront of combating the climate crisis. Modeled on the popular Fossil Fuel Treaty, the Plant-Based Treaty aims to halt the widespread degradation of critical ecosystems caused by animal agriculture and to promote a shift to healthier, sustainable plant-based diets.

The Washington Post
Here’s Exactly How Your Diet Affects the Planet, a Landmark Study Finds
In this article, researchers amassed data on food production and its impacts on the Earth including disturbances to wild-animal habitats, water use and pollution, and contribution to planetary warming. Their findings reveal what types of food production have the greatest consequences, and where.

Veganuary
Veganuary
Veganuary encourages and supports people and businesses alike to move to a plant-based diet as a way of protecting the environment, preventing animal suffering, and improving the health of millions of people.

World Resources Institute
Cool Food
Cool Food is an initiative of the World Resources Institute’s Food Program and Climate-Friendly Diets program. This website helps people and organizations reduce the climate impact of their food by shifting toward more plant-rich diets.

OTHER RECOMMENDED RESOURCES

Climate United
Climate United
Climate United is a coalition of organizations dedicated to working towards a healthier planet and population, a green economy, expanded economic opportunity, and inclusive and transformed capital markets.

Colorado Health Institute (CHI)
Climate and Health-Acclimate Colorado
Acclimate Colorado, a partnership between metro Denver public health agencies and CHI, is designed to help communities drive policy changes that will help Colorado communities become more resilient in the face of climate change and to improve health equity for the people most profoundly — and unfairly — affected by climate change.

Why Health Equity and Climate Change Go Hand in Hand
This article discusses the impacts of climate change on vulnerable populations in the state of Colorado.

ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR Benchmark
This benchmarking program is a voluntary U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) program that partners with organizations to transform the way commercial buildings use energy. They offer tools and resources to help assess energy performance, improve efficiency, and earn recognition.

Farmworker Justice
Farmworkers and the Climate Crisis
This webpage contains resources on climate change and its impact on farmworkers.

Institute for Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP)
ITEP Tribes and Climate Change Program
This program provides support and is responsive to the needs of tribes that are preparing for and currently contending with climate change impacts.

Technology, Entertainment, and Design (TED) Talk
It’s Impossible to Have Healthy People on a Sick Planet
In this TED Talk, Shweta Narayan highlights the interdependence of environmental and human health and emphasizes the necessity of placing health at the heart of all climate solutions.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Climate Resources at the National Academies
This webpage contains reports, videos, interactive games, and events all related to climate change.

The National Institute for Healthcare Management (NICHM)
Climate Changes Health: Extreme Heat
The NICHM Foundation has published an infographic that highlights the dangers of extreme heat, the relationship with the built environment, ways for individuals to protect themselves, and solutions to promote heat mitigation and management.

Climate Change is Affecting Our Mental Health
This infographic highlights the challenges facing humanity in regard to mental well-being and climate change as well as offers steps that can be taken to build mental health resilience.

The White House
Justice40 Initiative
Through the Justice40 Initiative, the United States government has made it a goal that 40 percent of the overall benefits of certain Federal investments flow to disadvantaged communities that are marginalized, underserved, and overburdened by pollution.

Partnership for Resilient Communities (PRC)
Partnership for Resilient Communities
The Partnership for Resilient Communities works to transform the national urban climate resilience field by increasing the number of leaders of color in the urban field of practice, advancing approaches that build the resilience of people and places through influence-building and policy approaches, community education and engagement, and the installation of clean energy and green infrastructure.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP)
The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) provides federally funded assistance to reduce the costs associated with home energy bills, energy crises, weatherization, and minor energy-related home repairs.

World Health Organization (WHO)
Climate Change and Health
This webpage provides an overview of climate change and its impact on health globally.