Turn your home and office into healthier, more sustainable spaces

For Dr. Brian Drummond, sustainable living goes beyond improving the environment – it's about protecting public health. From reusable kitchen supplies to solar panels, Drummond has found ways to link conservation and physical well-being when training the next generation of medical professionals.

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"Your health is worsened by the effects of climate, from the quality of air we breathe to the heat we experience, and medical students should understand how climate, the environment and health are all intertwined," Drummond said. "The more sustainable we are, the cleaner our air can be. If we improve our heat resiliency, we could decrease the impact of diseases like COPD and mental health issues. Fewer little carbon footprints create a smaller long-term carbon footprint."

As a clinical professor of emergency medicine in the College of Medicine – Tucson, Drummond's work focuses on education and advocacy for climate health and sustainable healthcare. He teaches Climate, Health and the Environment, an elective that helps students grow from climate curiosity to health advocacy. Outside of the U of A, Drummond co-founded Arizona Health Professionals for Climate Action, which brings together healthcare professionals to advocate for climate and public health.

Whether at home, the office or the hospital, Drummond has a few guiding principles for environmentally friendly decision making for everyday life:

• Generate electricity, primarily through solar power, but also through wind and micro-hydropower if available and practical
• Decrease meat intake and focus more on plant-based meals 
• Adopt sustainable transportation methods like electric vehicles, walking and biking, taking public transportation or ridesharing
• Fly less often, as the carbon footprint from airplanes is substantial

Drummond said an easy place to start is by examining common household items like dishes, cutlery and cleaning supplies. Consider using a set of old dishes and cups to host a birthday party instead of single-use supplies. Cloth napkins and rags can replace countless paper towels. He said many grocery stores allow customers to bring reusable containers for dry goods, detergents, produce and even deli meat.

Whether in the kitchen, garage or linen closet, Drummond recommends making gradual changes over time. When it's time to buy new bed sheets, consider a more sustainably sourced purchase. Could a gas range become an induction stove? The same approach applies to the dryer, fireplace and maybe the pool heater.

When developing a personal sustainability plan, Drummond finds it easiest to start with hobbies and passions. Whether you enjoy fitness, gardening, hiking or just spending time outside, Drummond said it's important to think about how small changes to those hobbies can fit into a climate action plan. 

"Maybe you're good at crunching numbers and can help people with their financial decisions," Drummond said. "Maybe you can advocate for more sustainable retirement funds. If you like food, consider taking meat out of a meal once a week."

Considering how much time people spend at home and in the office, Drummond regards those places as prime battlegrounds in the fight for sustainability that bring the most opportunities for change.

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"If I look up to someone and I see them doing something sustainable, I may want to emulate it in my own life," he said. "It is a slow process that can lead to less waste. The more we consume, the more we have to transport goods using fossil fuels, for instance – and our air quality is already poor. All of our actions matter, and they add up."

Adapting to desert heat

Drummond's commitment to sustainability is rooted in personal experience. While Tucson's infamous heat may have spurred much of the Drummond family's household sustainability improvements, that journey began while in Guam, where Drummond worked in an eight-bed emergency room. 

Living at the top of a hill, he watched for three years as a garbage dump slowly overtook the surrounding community. While driving to his son's kindergarten, giant smokestacks from oil-burning power plants polluted the otherwise beautiful Pacific coastline. 

Those experiences drove Drummond to investigate and invest in sustainable infrastructure, including changes he and his family could make to improve their environmental impact. After moving to Tucson in 2012 to work for the University of Arizona, Drummond used his new-found enthusiasm to remodel the family home. In addition to adding solar panels, rainwater cisterns and greywater showers, Drummond sourced sustainable building materials, all the way down to eco-friendly paint.

"It's kind of like an addiction," he said. "Once you harvest a little bit of rainwater, you start to think about the next storm and trying to catch a little more. Before you know it, you've built a berm or a little basin, and now your trees are doing better, and you end up transforming the whole yard."