Practice Greenhealth

Healthy Interiors

Virtual cohort group

Body

The Healthy Interiors Cohort provides a venue for health systems to share best practices, lessons learned, and troubleshoot any challenges with one another, in order to be able to most effectively achieve Practice Greenhealth's goals for interior building products. Facilities are invited to bring to the cohort their design and construction, EVS, and other staff members who are involved in the selection, installation, or maintenance of building products. Some sessions will also support the achievement of the Healthy Interiors goal included in the Impact Purchasing Commitment.

Target audience: Sustainability leads and other personnel involved in design and purchasing building materials 
Level: Beginner to intermediate

John Ullman Facilitator:
John Ullman
Contact: jullman@hcwh.org

 

“Where there is credible evidence that a material might result in harm to the environment or public health, we work to replace it with safer alternatives.” –  Kathy Gerwig, former vice president of employee safety, health and wellness, Kaiser Permanente

Below are some of the facilities represented in the cohort:

  • Ascension 
  • Advocate Aurora Health  
  • Children’s Hospital & Medical Center of Omaha
  • Cleveland Clinic
  • CommonSpirit
  • Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center
  • Inova Health System
  • Kaiser Permanente 
  • Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
  • Hackensack Meridian Health
  • PeaceHealth
  • Seattle Children’s
  • SLC Health System
  • Standford Children’s Health - Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital
  • Texas Children’s Hospital

 

2023 Schedule

February 7, 2023 4:00 PM EST

Topic: Addressing plastics in health care

Discussion questions:

  1. Have you been able to reduce the use of plastic products by changing processes or procedures?
  2. Have you successfully transitioned from single-use to reusable plastic products?
  3. What barriers have you faced when trying to address plastics?
  4. Has your system met the Practice Greenhealth goal for the elimination of PVC/DEHP?
June 6, 2023 4:00 PM EST 

Topic: Green cleaning FAQ 

Discussion questions:

  1. Which types of cleaning products do your facilities use that are GreenSeal or UL Ecologo certified?
  2. Have your facilities switched to one-step disinfectants?
  3. Can you share any experiences you've had implementing new cleaning or disinfecting technologies?
  4. What setbacks did you face as a result of the pandemic?
August 1, 2023 4:00 PM EST 

Topic: Achieving the Healthy Interiors goal for furniture

Discussion questions:

  1. What experiences have you had with healthy furniture in the past?
  2. Have you found the performance of furniture varies based on the use case?
  3. Do you have any large projects/contracts in the near future in which you may consider healthy furniture products?
  4. How do you capture spend data from suppliers and distributors?    
November 7, 2023 4:00 PM EST

Topic: Understanding sterilization and disinfection options

Discussion questions:

  1. Are your facilities using safer alternatives for disinfection and sterilization?
  2. What types of products do your facilities reprocess?
  3. Have any changes you have made resulted in financial savings?

 

Content Box
Log in for access to this resource

Join Practice Greenhealth

Practice Greenhealth is the health care sector’s go-to source for information, tools, data, resources, and expert technical support on sustainability initiatives that help hospitals and health systems meet their health, financial, and community goals.

Join now

Who We Are

Practice Greenhealth is the leading sustainable health care organization, delivering environmental solutions to more than 1,500 hospitals and health systems in the United States and Canada. Partnership opportunities include hospitals, health systems, community health organizations, NGOs, nonprofits, government, academic institutions, and the health care value chain.