We Made It! - 2018 SHIFT Awards Official Selection in the Business Leadership Category

Public Lands, Public Health 

We are proud to announce that Idaho Business for the Outdoors (IBO) has been designated for the 2018 SHIFT Awards Official Selection in the Business Leadership category!  We will have the opportunity to attend and participate in the SHIFT Festival in Jackson Hole, Wyoming this October.  Entitled “Public Lands, Public Health," the program will highlight the ways pioneers, early adopters and thought leaders from around the country are integrating time outdoors in nature into our health care system and our daily lives. 

We want to thank SHIFT as well as our own early-adopters, and founding healthcare business members:  Direct Orthopedic Care, Center for Colorectal Care, Allied Orthopaedics and the Idaho Urologic Institute for uniting their businesses' healthcare voice with IBO.  By joining with other industries, as well as a broader nonpartisan set of stakeholders, these businesses are helping IBO connect land and water management and use decisions with the health and wellness of people right here in Idaho. Idaho has the second most physically active population in the nation - due in large part to our magnificent public lands and outdoor access.  Our outdoors and amazing outdoor recreation opportunities are also attracting needed healthcare workers from large cities and other towns across the nation.  The health benefits of our outdoors, as well as the business advantage they provide in attracting and sustaining critical healthcare jobs in Idaho, are important to our state, our economy and the public health of people in Idaho.  

SHIFT began their research for this years awards by looking at more than 400 initiatives that were leveraging outdoor rec for conservation gains. They then evaluated more than 150 nominations on the basis of impact, innovation and replicability, and applied an additional criteria to their evaluations—“Does the initiative help advance and promote the health benefits of time outside?”—to insure alignment with this year’s focus.  We were told our work as well as our nonpartisan and inclusive mission at IBO stood out as among the most impactful, innovative and replicable in the space.  We're thrilled and very thankful that IBO has been invited to participate in advancing a national effort to connect our public lands and outdoors to our public health.