Alissa Nemmers
Vail Health, Sustainability Education and Operations Coordinator
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Alissa Nemmers is the Sustainability Education and Operations Coordinator at Vail Health in Colorado. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Environmental Studies and Sustainability from Northern Michigan University and is passionate about making sustainability concepts accessible and actionable. Her work focuses on sustainability education, helping individuals understand complex environmental processes, and connecting human and environmental health to inspire engagement and meaningful change. Alissa enjoys building awareness and support for sustainability initiatives within healthcare and the broader community. Outside of work, she serves as the head coach of a local high school dance team and is actively engaged in community events. She also enjoys gardening and spending time outdoors, embracing Colorado’s abundant sunshine.
Using Environmental Health Education to Build Sustainability Engagement
Sustainability professionals struggle to engage clinicians, employees, and community members in efforts that feel directly connected to health outcomes. This session explores how a rural health system in Vail, Colorado used local environmental concerns as a catalyst for broader sustainability engagement.
Our journey was motivated by both concern and curiosity. We developed education for community events and translated complex environmental concepts into accessible messages for diverse audiences. This evolved into a clinician-centered educational Grand Rounds presentation, education events (17), and sparked dozens of structured conversations about environmental health within our organization.
We collaborated with municipalities, environmental nonprofits, and community partners to use environmental health education as a tool to build awareness. We discovered that these discussions extended beyond physical health impacts and into behavioral health. Community members increasingly expressed concern about climate-related anxiety driven by issues such as microplastic exposure, changing snowfall and precipitation patterns, increasing severe weather events, and a broader sense of environmental uncertainty.
Attendees will learn how to leverage emerging environmental health topics to engage clinicians, translate research into meaningful education, address climate-related behavioral health concerns, and use health-centered messaging to expand support for sustainability efforts within and beyond their organizations. Participants will leave with strategies for turning awareness into action and creating momentum for sustainability programs. For teams struggling to move beyond compliance-driven engagement, this session offers a replicable model.
Rural Healthcare System: Sustainable Growing Pains
Vail Health, a rural healthcare system with a mission to “elevate health across our mountain communities,” has built a sustainability program shaped by a distinct set of challenges: long transportation distances, limited facility and land space, geographic isolation that complicates supply chains, mountain terrain and cold-weather conditions that affect electrification initiatives. These constraints often make interventions that are straightforward for larger, urban health systems difficult to implement in rural settings. Despite these barriers, our sustainability program has achieved 421.34 tons diverted from landfill and a diversion rate of 28.6%. We've advanced this progress through a dual approach: grassroots, employee-driven engagement strategy paired with data-driven business cases that secured executive and C-suite support, establishing sustainability as a strategic organizational priority.
This session will share our successes, setbacks, and lessons learned in building a sustainability program in a resource-constrained, rural environment. We'll discuss how we've navigated logistical and supply chain barriers, adapted to electrification and recycling initiatives to fit our geography, and engaged both frontline staff and leadership in advancing measurable progress.
Attendees will leave with strategies for gaining organizational buy-in, engaging employees and leadership around sustainability, and adapting initiatives to resource-limited settings. These insights are applicable regardless of organizational size, geography, or program maturity. This session offers healthcare sustainability professionals a candid, real-world look at building resilient programs when conditions aren't ideal, and practical tools for turning constraints into opportunities for innovation.
Alissa Nemmers
Vail Health, Sustainability Education and Operations Coordinator
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