Education, Outreach, and Community Engagement

At Mount Sinai, sustainability is part of who we are. It means delivering the best care and outcomes while using our resources wisely—for our patients, our communities, and our planet. As the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai leads groundbreaking research on how climate and the environment affect health, we all share a role in creating a healthier, more sustainable future. By understanding and living our values of sustainability and social responsibility, every employee helps drive Mount Sinai’s mission forward—caring for people and the planet together.

Advancing Planetary Health Through Student Leadership

Students across the medical doctorate, master's programs, and doctorate programs at the Icahn School of Medicine conduct a comprehensive annual assessment of the institution’s performance on climate education and health care sustainability through the Planetary Health Report Card, a standardized evaluation of planetary health curricula, interdisciplinary environmental health research, community engagement, support for student-led initiatives, and campus sustainability practices. The Student Council Sustainability Committee has implemented several waste-reduction initiatives, including:

Enrolling student dormitories in a compost-pickup program
Distributing free compost bags and bins
Facilitating battery recycling
Organizing regular clothing-swap and donation events

Members of the student organization, Medical Students for a Sustainable Future, have contributed supplemental planetary health content to the preclinical medical curriculum and delivered lectures on climate communication and environmental health policy. A student-led climate change elective course is currently in development and is scheduled to be offered in Spring 2026.

Promoting Sustainability in the Workplace

To help staff integrate environmentally sustainable practices into their daily routines—and support the best possible clinical outcomes through responsible resource use—it is essential that they understand both what actions to take and why they matter. Through ongoing communication and close collaboration with our teams, we continue to raise awareness and actively engage employees in Mount Sinai’s environmental initiatives. This commitment is reflected in our “Sustain Mount Sinai” employee communications campaign, which outlines our goals to reduce emissions and connects them to clear, actionable steps staff can take. By equipping employees across the organization with the knowledge and tools to drive meaningful change, we invite them to play an active role in reducing waste, improving energy efficiency, and creating healthier environments.

Reaching Out to the Communities We Serve

At Mount Sinai, we believe cross collaboration and partnerships are a key to it building a healthier community. Mount Sinai’s population health and primary care teams have been actively reaching out to people who are particularly vulnerable to environmental hazards, including extreme heat, severe weather-related events, and pollution. We have piloted several programs to screen and educate patients and community members on key environmental issues. The following are specific programs that we have implemented:

As heat waves intensify and increase in frequency in New York, Mount Sinai physicians are now screening patients for heat vulnerability at prioritized primary care clinics. Patients who meet criteria are connected to New York City Department of Health resources to ensure they gain access to life-saving air conditioning in their home or in a nearby cooling center during heat waves.
Mount Sinai’s Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit screens infants, children, and teens for exposures to environmental hazards and provides evidence-based educational resources and tools such as “Prescription for Prevention” handouts to reduce exposures and adopt healthier lifestyles.
Mount Sinai has been a pioneer in the “Food is Medicine” movement, where providers may prescribe healthy food vouchers to local New York City farmers markets for patients with diet-related conditions.
Mount Sinai’s occupational health programs screen and educate workers on environmental hazards they may encounter on the job.

Altogether, these initiatives ensure a healthier, more resilient community.

Sustainability Thought Leaders

Public webinars and training sessions have been hosted by Mount Sinai to educate the community and health care professionals on climate-related health topics. Our leadership participates in climate-related conferences to share our successes. Mount Sinai’s Institute for Exposomic Research hosts an annual Clinical Climate Conference series and public webinar lunch and learns. At the Icahn School of Medicine, our sustainability team has served as guest lecturers at the Climate Change elective, educating medical students on health care’s climate impact and planetary health.

Resources

To learn more about Mount Sinai and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai work around environmental impacts on our health, visit the following resources: