OU Public Health | Fall 2018 12 Creating a culture of health is not only imperative for individuals and communities, it also is essen- tial in the world of business. That was one of the core messages shared by Dr. Howard Koh as the featured speaker for the 2018 Hudson Fellows Symposium. Koh is the Harvey V. Fineberg Professor of the Practice of Public Health Leadership at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the Harvard Kennedy School. He also served as the 14th Assistant Sec- retary for Health for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Obama administration. “Every business impacts health, whether they realize it or not. Every business im- pacts the health of their employees. They impact the health of consumers with the products they make. They impact and are connected to their community in many ways, and they have some impact on the environment,” Koh said. These are what Koh refers to as the four pillars that form the foundation for what he terms a culture of health, where values of well-being are encouraged in how we live, labor, learn, play and pray. “Part of our initiative and part of our goal is to build better bridges between business and health; to have businesses realize that the work they are doing, which is often very important for the economy, is also important for health,” he explained. Koh said there is no doubt that the history of business and health is a checkered one. One only need to look at news reports to see almost daily reports about how actions by businesses have led to unfortunate health outcomes. He mentioned tobacco as a major example of that. “We’ve seen how tobacco has caused so much preventable death and suffering. We’re hearing about global obesity and how we need healthier food and bever- age products, for example,” Koh said. “And there are too many examples of environ- mental hazards and even products manu- factured that should have a better impact on health. So, there are far too many ex- amples of how businesses have not been open and transparent, and how they have not promoted the public health.” The old status quo is no longer acceptable to many in an era where people expect greater transparency and accountability. Koh pointed to millennials, in particular, noting that they are willing to pay more for sustainable products. “CEO’s also have a lot invested because their trust levels worldwide have dropped in dramatic fashion and every CEO wants to have a good reputation and to have products of which they are proud. In the last 20 years, there’s been a great push for businesses to report on more than just tra- ditional financial outcomes, but also to re- port on non-financial outcomes or what I call ESG measures.” ESG stands for Environmental, Social and Governance measures, which ultimately measure outcomes for all stakeholders and not just shareholders. For far too long, Koh said promoting public health focused on the health sector alone. “We’ve relied on doctors, nurses and healthcare professionals; and that’s fine. I am a physician myself and I’ve cared for patients for over 30 years, so I know how important that is. But I think the future of public health is to promote a culture of health where we realize that everything is interconnected. Everything is interdepen- dent,” he remarked. “As Robert Frost said we all “have promis- es to keep” and when we see communities where everyone realizes that we need each other and have to work with one another, where business and health work closely together for the common good, then we can make our society healthier for the next generation.” the Public’s Health The Business of