Greenleaf Communities, whose mission is to mitigate the environmental causes of human health concerns, hosted a successful Summer 2014 Board Meeting last week. True to Greenleaf’s collaborative approach, we brought together leaders in business, science and policy to share our latest in leading research teams to inform business practices and government policies.
We discussed current projects, such as our healthy soil study in the Eagle Creek watershed near Indianapolis and the importance in demonstrating reproducible results to strengthen best practices. We also considered the idea of Greenleaf Communities as an incubator for experiments that test how to best advance a sustainable world.
Board member Dr. Janet Hock presented her work studying links between environmental exposures and incidences of cancer in Maine. She and her colleagues mapped lifestyle, behavioral, and geographic environmental exposures with cancer cases. This research could benefit healthcare by enhancing diagnosis and prognosis, improve health risk assessments and help healthcare centers determine where to place specialists.
The Ohio State University, with support from Greenleaf Advisors, is launching a workshop and symposium series later this year. The Healthy Soils for Healthy Waters Workshop will take place September 14-16th in Columbus, Ohio with the goal of improving agricultural management practices on lands that impact our nation’s waters. The workshop will bring together researchers and representatives from a variety of disciplines to approach this watershed issue. Additional details will be posted on this site as they become available.
After reflecting upon our current and upcoming work, the Greenleaf board members strategized on addressing other issues of critical importance to environmental and human health, namely water scarcity and the effects of climate change, in what was a very productive board meeting.