For those that haven’t met me yet, I’m Sinthusha Sivakumaran, the new sustainability co-op working with Lisa Vanlint! I’m pursuing a double major at the University of Waterloo in Science and Business. When I agreed to this job, I thought I knew what I was getting myself into but I was wrong, very, very, very wrong, in the best possible way 🙂 In the two months I’ve been here, I’ve done so much more and learned so much.

Currently, I’m running both the Shut the Sash initiative and the Ice Pack Initiative. I’m in the midst of increasing compliance with environmental guidelines within various in-patient wards and also take part in auditing and mediating hazardous and non-hazardous waste disposal practices.

Moreover, I help out with the UHN Green Team – this is my favorite part! The Green Team is composed of UHN staff that volunteer to do what they can, in a small or big way, to increase sustainable practices within their respective department. The members essentially take on the role of an environmental ambassador to help increase stewardship, with our help of course!

My predecessor, Nicolette, also worked on some of these as well as other projects. Have a look here and here! Definitely worth the read.

As a side note, I love swimming, reading is not a hobby it’s a lifestyle, all-time favorite show is Grey’s Anatomy – it’s a great day to save lives –, midway through watching Scandal, love taking on more than I can handle, petrified of elevators (I’ve taken so many since working here and almost always hold my breathe each time), dream job is to be the Prime Minister (a girl can dream, right?), and I’m a very proud LEO, rawr.

Jokes aside, I am extremely happy to be working for the Energy and Environment department. It is an amazing experience in such a large organization, and leads the way to many learning opportunities. There is so much that can be done to increase compliance and raise awareness in regards to sustainability, energy and waste practices. In a hospital setting, it goes hand in hand with safety. Our team is on it, one step at a time. So, consider it handled, with everyone’s help, of course. 10 bonus points to anyone that caught my Scandal reference.

Cheers,

Sinthusha

In a world that sometimes seems a little hard and cold (definitely cold this week), it’s heartening to see a group come together and do some good. We are thrilled to add just such a group to our Green Wall of Fame. Congratulations to the Continue reading →

Canada is usually associated with our long cold winter.  To take advantage of the cold weather, we go out for skating, skiing, snowshoe hiking, ice fishing, snowmobiling, etc., tons of fun activities.  Is there anything we can do at hospitals to make full use of the winter?  Actually there is.  Our hospitals have much essential medical equipment that requires cooling year around.  Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is one example.  It relies on deep cooling to maintain super-conductors inside to generate extremely strong magnetic field and radio waves to do very detailed scanning of patients.  The temperature required is so low for super-conductors that they are submerged in liquid helium, which is about -270 °C (-454 °F).

Figure 1: Typical MRI Scanner Cutaway

A typical MRI scanner uses Continue reading →

Just as it’s hard to end a year without a “Best-Of” list, it would feel equally strange to start a new year without a Continue reading →