Kent Waddington - Communications Director

Kent Waddington, a freelance environmental communicator, is a founding member of the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care and currently holds the title of Communications Director.

An environmentalist since high school, Kent has spent much of the past thirteen years engaged in helping members of the Canadian health services sector develop and adopt more environmentally responsible practices. For seven years he developed programme content and promotional materials for the Canadian government's Energy Innovators Initiative within the context of health care, as the Energy Efficiency Coordinator for the Canadian College of Health Service Executives. Throughout that time, he created sector-specific initiatives related to environmental sustainability including National Health Care Energy Efficiency Awareness Week, Energy Perspectives, the sector's first energy management newspaper, A Resource Guide for Energy Efficiency Awareness Champions, the CCHSE/OEE National Energy Management Award, and coordinated and assisted in the design and analysis of the first national research study to assess energy efficiency practices and awareness levels in the Canadian health services sector.

He has also developed materials and written for the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society, the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation, and Natural Resources Canada's CBIP Programme. Kent continues to author newsletters, web content and develop Environmental Stewardship Initiative materials for one of Canada's largest Fortune 500 companies supporting health care sites across Canada. He has spoken on energy efficiency and the greening of hospitals at conferences across Canada and his writing and photography have appeared in local, national and foreign publications/websites including Healthcare Forum, Hospital News, Stride, Canadian Facility Management, C-ing, Air Canada's Enroute magazine, Subtance Magazine (UK), and the Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships.

Kent is also a research team associate with Royal Roads University's School of Environment and Sustainability and a founding Board member of the National Environmental Treasure, a people's trust fund devoted to the exclusive funding of Canadian environmental organizations.

Linda Varangu - Partnership Director

Linda Varangu has been helping health care go green for the past 20 years. She is currently the Partnership Director for the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care.

Linda has delivered workshops and training sessions across Canada on pollution prevention and sustainability issues including several health care related sessions for organisations such as Natural Resources Canada, Environment Canada, Canadian Administrative Housekeeping Association, Canadian Hospital Association, Ontario Hospital Association, Alberta Hospital Association, Nova Scotia Department of the Environment and Labour, Atlantic Support Services Alliance, and the City of Toronto.

She has written several pollution prevention plans for health care facilities, is the primary author of the first Canadian hospital waste audit guide - Hospital Waste Audit Manual, and instructed a core course for a Certificate in Environmental Management at Dalhousie University for five years. Authoring over 50 manuals and research documents on waste minimisation, waste management and pollution prevention, Linda has also undertaken over 100 waste assessments and detailed audits for various industry sectors including health care facilities.

Over her career Linda has spent: six years as senior advisor at a national organisation focused on pollution prevention; seven years as Executive Director of a newly minted organisation which supported municipal waste reduction and recycling staff during the rise of municipal recycling and other waste reduction programs; three years at a provincial research organisation working on waste minimisation programs and two years at a municipal government, where she initiated the first municipally based industrial and institutional waste reduction program in Canada.

Linda is also a Founding Board Member and Co-Director at My Sustainable Canada (MSC). MSC is a national not-for-profit organisation that brings together sustainability experts to help Canadians have a positive impact on the environment and society by empowering them with the tools and means to become more sustainable consumers of products and services.

Her education background includes a Bachelor of Science degree (Chemistry and Biology) and a Masters in Environmental Engineering (Biochemical Engineering/Environmental Engineering). Linda and her husband Rob designed and built their environmentally friendly home from the stone and timber off their 93 acre organic farm. They currently have virtual offices at their home, which they share with their son Valen (our in-house techy), 28 chickens and two roosters.

DyIan DingweII - Manager, Program Delivery

Dylan Dingwell is the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care's National Manager of Program Delivery. Dylan's interest in the intersection between environmental sustainability and health care began as an academic pursuit, as in his university days he studied biophysics at the University of Waterloo and the global history of sustainability at McMaster University. Since joining the Coalition in 2010, Dylan has coordinated delivery of a range of initiatives focused on greening health care, including the development of the Safer Chemical Policy Alliance and the Green Products and Services Guide. More recently, his focus has been on projects related to energy use at health care facilities in Canada, such as the Coalition's ongoing initiatives on green revolving funds and renewable energy. Dylan also manages the Canadian Green Health Care Digest, which brings the latest green health care news and resources to thousands of health care professionals across Canada each week. He is a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia but is currently based in Hamilton, Ontario.

Christine Wolfl - Coalition Social Media Coordinator

Christine Wolfl is a fourth year undergraduate student in Honors Psychology at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo ON. She has recently taken on the position of Coalition Social Media Geek with the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care after an exciting environmental psychology class inspired her to continue seeking opportunities in this area. This is an excellent opportunity to merge her passions for health and the environment with skills in social media and web communications.

Currently, Christine is helping with membership recruitment and development of our social media strategy as we embrace more ways to keep our audience involved and up-to-date with our successes and initiatives. She is enthusiastic about using this new, environmentally-friendly communications technique to bring us together and spread our message.

Christine also actively volunteers with the Wilfrid Laurier University Centre for Community Research, Learning and Action as the Web and Information Technology Manager and as a Research Assistant with the Poverty Reduction Research Group. During her free time, she likes to hike, snowboard, backpack and bake a variety of delicious treats (however, we haven’t seen any of these treats yet). She welcomes this wonderful opportunity to expand her knowledge in communications and be involved in such an important field.

Isabel Melgarejo – Bio-waste Project Coordinator

Isabel Melgarejo studied chemical engineering and as a complement to her undergraduate degree, she accomplished a master’s in sustainable environmental management at the University of Saskatchewan. She has worked in industry and consulting companies creating programs that reduce the environmental impact of both organisations and industrial plants. Isabel discovered her love for waste after working on her master’s project and learning how important it is to properly manage all aspects of the waste we generate. She thrives on helping to find innovative and simple solutions to waste management issues. Isabel is currently leading the research on the Coalition’s bio-waste project.