The Minnesota Climate Adaptation Partnership (MCAP) recently recognized HealthPartners, a mission-driven, nonprofit, integrated health system based in Bloomington, Minnesota, for outstanding climate adaptation contributions. The award was presented to HealthPartners at a November 2018 ceremony in the Twin Cities. The MCAP Awards recognize and celebrate exceptional achievements in leadership, education, research, policies, and practices that improve resilience and develop, advance, or implement climate adaptation strategies.

“HealthPartners is humbled, honored, and excited to be the recipient of the 2018 Minnesota Climate Adaptation Award for Organizations,” said Dana Slade, director of sustainability programs. “This recognition is a reflection of HealthPartners commitment to our holistic sustainability program, and an illustration of the work we do every day to live our mission and values by working to improve the health and well-being of the communities we serve.”

As the first health system in Minnesota to join the Health Care Climate Council in 2016, HealthPartners was recognized for driving the transformation to climate-smart health care through resilience, mitigation, and community leadership. Specifically, HealthPartners has invested in facility upgrades to ensure continuous operations during extreme weather, supported utility partner efforts to move toward a carbon-free electrical grid, and developed a collaborative toolkit to help community benefit staff identify climate-related health risks and determine how to integrate climate and health into the community needs assessment process.

In 2018, HealthPartners also worked with Health Care Without Harm and the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments to pilot the Nurses Climate Challenge to educate thousands of health professionals about the health impacts of climate change and guide adaptation action.

“HealthPartners has been a leader in climate-smart health care,” said Jessica Wolff, director of Health Care Without Harm’s U.S. climate and health program. “They are working locally, regionally, nationally, and even internationally to promote health care action on climate. We are so grateful to have HealthPartners on the Health Care Climate Council and feel the system is well-deserving of the Minnesota Climate Adaptation Award.”

To learn more about how hospitals and health systems are investing in resilience, read Safe haven in the storm: Protecting lives and margins with climate-smart health care, a report published by Health Care Without Harm and PricewaterhouseCoopers Advisory Services LLC.