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AZHPCA's December 2024 Newsletter

Brian Drummond

Dec 17, 2023

Merry December to the AZHPCA team,

Hope everyone has a great week this week and I wanted to give you some updates.


Updates:

-We have been pretty busy even over the holiday season including:

  1. Attended IRA Funding Opportunities Toolkit session

    1. Go to the attached link to find resources for Community Health Centers and information to share with patients to use IRA funding to make climate smart choices.

  2. Steering Committee Meeting- Highlights

    1. Going to sponsor 3 members going to the MSCCH 2024 Conference! Congrats April, Gabriela and Leen!

    2. Focus for next year will be on:

      1. Elections

      2. Clean Energy Transition

      3. Transportation Sector transition to Clean and Alternative Transportation

      4. Finishing and maintaining website

    3. Planning a Aug/Sept 2024 AZHPCA Summit

    4. Education: develop Speakers Group, deliver on Medical Student Elective

    5. Funding:  Will evaluate Grant requests, but not required for continuing activities

    6. Membership development to help bring in more members and increase activity of current members

  3. Climate Health Talk to Family Medicine Residency Program Conference- 30 attendees

  4. Sustainable Healthcare Committee- Highlights

    1. Met with members of the Energy Foundation, Vote Solar, Poder Latinx, and the AZ Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander AZ AANHPI to discuss partnerships going forward into the next year.

  5. Arizona Route Zero Press Event

    1. Joined State Sen. Gabaldon and Pima County Supervisor Grijalva to encourage the EPA and Biden Administration to finalize the strongest Clean Car rule before the end of this year

    2. 6 media outlets attended.

  6. State Leaders Chat about creating a Speakers Bureau.

    1. If you are interested in speaking let me know, you don't have to be a subject matter expert just interested in sharing the word.

    2. New Hampshire shared their experience with Rotary Clubs, Libraries and other community engagements.  They created a base slide set and let speakers modify based on the audience.  They had great success with discussions more than straight presentations.

    3. We are going to work on developing this over the next year as if it seems a great opportunity for engagement.

  7. Meeting with Senator Sinema's office tomorrow to stress the need for stronger PM and air quality standards.

-AZHPCA Website design help

Yep still going, hope to have it done by end of March being realistic and doing this in our free time
-Thanks again to Jaiva, Keith, Nico, Nick, Vivian and Sam for helping write some background information content and design.
-Still in need of some photos of climate positive things- Windmills, interactions with groups, patient interactions, giving a talk
-If you are interested in helping please reach out.

Education information:

Here is a quick look at some of the clean energy development that is happening in Arizona and some of the companies involved.  A lot of this has been spurred by the IRA as this is one of the biggest growth in US manufacturing ever caused by the bill!

https://www.selectmesa.com/industries/electric-vehicles

Quick article read on how we can help lead climate action for our patients.

Upcoming:

Jan/Feb Steering Committee Meeting

Sustainability Committee Meetings:

March 13, 2024
June 12, 2024
Sept 11, 2024
Dec 11, 2024

Action Items:

1.  Send a message to Governor Hobbs  to enact clean air standards.  Most of it is pre populated but you can customize it.  I am not sure when this expires.

2.  Sign petition to President Biden to stop permitting liquid natural gas export facilities in the Gulf Coast.   Here is an article about this.

3.  Make your holidays as green as possible.  Consider reusable gift bags which you can use every year.  We have done this for 10 years and it is super easy to wrap and reuse.  Not pushing Amazon but here is a link to some options.  The ones with drawstrings are great!  Here is another link to more sustainably made ones


So lots of ways to get involved and hope to see you at the meetings!  Respond to me with which activities you are interested in.

Will chat soon and share the invite to join AZPHCA with anyone who is interested.


Thanks so much for your interest and passion.

-Brian

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