I recently attended the launch of the Institute for Sustainability, Health and Environment. This is a multidisciplinary centre bringing together urban planning, public health environmental health and anything else linked, covering 18 research centres.

Click here to go to ISHE website

ISHE Health Map 

the best bit of the website is the health map (click here) but it's not clear to start with that you need to click on the rings of the diagram to get to lists of ongoing research - each with a link to a poster which was presented at the launch. Above image of health map reproduced with kind permission: see Barton, H. and Grant, M. (2006) A health map for the human habitat, Journal of the Royal Society for the Promotion of Health, 126(6):252-261 See attached full resolution image (jpg) and full reference (pdf).

 The following are my notes from the day (also see attached). There were several great speakers which I'm afraid I don't do justice in these notes!

Launch of Institute of Health, Sustainability and Environment
University of Western England, 21-4-09 (notes by Neil Chadborn)

Led by VC Steve West – to link up resources in sustainability
Promoting a ‘Healthy Sustainable’ University
Coordinators: Jim Longhurst and Judy Orme
Appropriate solutions within environmental limits
 Change management
Health impact of climate change – IPPC
Behaviour change for a healthy planet and healthy population
Health map
Begin, but not end, with students – i.e. wider community
EPSRC – bridging the gaps funding 0.6mill
 ‘HEAT’ to link Technology with Health and Environment
University investing in faculty, education for sustainable development
 Index of sustainability health and environment – mapping local authorities
ISHE expertise – 18 research centres
WHO collaborating centre – Healthy Cities
 Niche specialisms contribute to synergistic whole
UWE sustainable university – has board and strategy
 Sustainability impact areas
Health integrated into routine life of uni and wider community

Agi Tsouros, Centre for Urban Health, WHO (Healthy Cities)
This meeting something different – brave move
Public health is a complex process, try to produce evidence which will sway decision makers
1980 Black report on inequalities of health
 Are we as scientist failing in only producing evidence? – need also the political will
 Uncertainty – world problems not just new crises, but require different approaches
39% of Copenhagen workforce cycle to work
 Work with urban planners who don’t normally have health on the agenda
Close the gap between science and policy making - WHO meeting Oct08
Need leadership from top
 Need transferability, but also just give it a go multi-site multi-variable
 Evaluate and modify as you go along
Range of disciplines can provide evidence in a way that policy makers can use

Gabriel Scally, South West Regional Director of Public Health
Thomas Berry – ‘you cannot have well humans on a sick planet’
Rising tide of population growth
Before recession expected population growth 27% in SW in next 20yr
Need to build sustainable communities not just new homes
Importance of putting hands on something to understand – a recent visit of PH people to Freiburg to see the trams etc. The trams run over grass which reduces noise pollution by 30%
Expand access to PH thinking to whole society
 Leisure service, planners, councillors
NHS 10% of GDP locally
Stop acquiescing in unacknowledged carnage that our society is producing
 Eg road deaths
National accounts of wellbeing
 NEF suggest using this instead of GDP

Sara Parkin – Founder Director, Forum for the Future
Nothing being done about lack of universities intellectual leadership on these issues
Psychology of dealing with huge issues
Pathology of leadership
World pop   2009:  6.8bill
Estimated   2035: 8.5bill
With intervention  2050:  9.2 (otherwise 10.7)
England and wales 3rd most populated area after Bangladesh and Netherlands
Iran – leaders in birth control, advice from Mosques (within marriage advice)
Imagine a different future
Sustainability literacy
 Understanding why
  Needs knowledge and skills
Recognise and reward good behaviour
Need resilience, relationships, reflection, reverence
 Jeremy Greenstock – writing about a resilient global economy dependent on local resilience
Carbon watchers campaign
Grow natural capital
Links between these words:

                         Welfare
                             \/
                    -------------------
Health  >   {    Being Well       }    <    Happy
                     ------------------- 
                             /\
                         Wealth

Steve Killeen, Environment Agency
Landfill sites are a part of ‘carbon capture and storage’ hmm not sure about this…
Business needs to communicate with universities
To ensure that graduates are aware of these issues.

Sir Muir Grey, The Climate Connection
He set up ‘Behind the headlines’ service at NHS Choices – informed opinion about headline stories updated daily.
Costells introduced the idea of a networked society:
 1st revolution was empirical (industry)
2nd revolution science
3rd Revolution safety, quality, failure to make connections between information, technology, knowledge
Professionals are off the case – they can only follow
Business organisation should have non-hierarchical group in parallel with hierarchical structure
Hypertext – Japanese approach
These are basic principles of ecology:
 Interdependence, recycling, partnership, flexibility, diversity, sustainability (Fritjof Capra)
Invention of the plough drove the manorial system, the stirrup drove feudal system –technology has brought about the social structures that we know – social structures aren’t inevitable – they are brought about by our activity & therefore can be changed.
Ludvig von Bertalanffy – systems thinking – we need to use this approach rather than inductive/deductive

Simon Roberts – Chief Exec. Centre for Sustainable Energy, Bristol
Setup by Hugh Barton 30yr ago, has been working with WHO healthy cities
Internal domestic temperature 12.5’C in 1970’s, now 18’C
 Our expectations are continually raised
How to research groups should develop sense of responsibility in community:
 Engage with real practitioners
 Studies should be max of 1yr duration
 Make research policy relevant and engaging for policy-makers

Panel Discussion
Sir Muir: behaviour change in medical profession is difficult because they see their day-job as saving lives
Simon : Energy monitoring in hospitals found that cooling and heating working against each other
 At Bath local strategic partnership – medical people were the most difficult to get on board
Need 5yr carbon budgets
Mark Summers NHS Cornwall – mandatory targets, but without teeth – commitment by 2010
Agi Tsouros: WHO asked Michael Marmot to distil evidence into 10 ‘solid facts’ of social determinants of health
Need to create ‘Positive Deviance’ – leadership in sustainability (example in HM Treasury)
Karen Summerhayes, Somerset – talked about waste management – how to link up the parts and increase engagement
Ref: Lord Ashby – Reconciling man and Environment
Leadership from top can be a symptom of success – not a driver – i.e, we can’t wait for top-down leadership
Peter Liss, Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution,
Use current extreme weather conditions as tools to prepare us from future possible risks