Providence partners with Practice Greenhealth to care wisely for our people, our resources, and our Earth.
Providence's vision statement is Health for a Better World. Ensuring a stable climate and healthy planet is a crucial element of our envisioned world. At Providence we are doing all we can do reduce our carbon emissions in this decade, working toward carbon negative by 2030.
Yet, this bold commitment goes beyond addressing carbon emissions. We are committed to building equitable, climate resilience in the communities we serve, focusing on social and racial justice. Further, we aim to ensure we can serve consistently even through extreme weather events and the changes we see in our environment.
The current crisis calls for us to act boldly, with compassion. We are doing so by helping to care for our common home, ensuring equity today, and passing a healthy planet to the generations of tomorrow.
First, get access to all Practice Greenhealth resources and experiences.
Register on the Practice Greenhealth website.
Practice Greenhealth Membership Instructions for Providence Caregivers: Create a login to Practice Greenhealth first at: Homepage | Practice Greenhealth.
- Go to “Sign Up” button.
- Use your providence email address.
- Providence’s partner access code is 167919
- You will create a password.
To access the awards platform:
- Go to the Metrics & Awards tab.
- Then "Awards Platform"
- Then "Log in" or “Sign in”
- Enter your email and password
- Each time you log in, Practice Greenhealth will send you a multifactor 6-digit code . Type that in and you should have access. Click on the "Dashboard" link and it should take you to your application.
Get involved!
- Learn more about joining a Green Team in your region here.
- Join our systemwide Action Collaborative for Environmental Stewardship team here.
- View all our internal resources on the System Environmental Stewardship SharePoint here.
Share with other! View our publicly available resources below:
- Visit the external website for The Providence Center for Environmental Stewardship
- View our publicly available Toolkits and Resources.
Next, start your journey and explore the following priority areas and resources.
Waste
Health care organizations create enormous quantities of waste. Providence hospitals created over 100 million pounds in 2023. Waste can be hazardous, challenging to dispose of (involving long haul transportation) and a source of significant chemical and greenhouse gas pollution. By 2030, our goal is to divert more than 50 percent of our total organizational waste away from landfill and hazardous streams (autoclave and incineration). We will achieve “waste optimization” through diversion (recycling, composting, donations) and avoided waste - reducing consumption and single-use products to avoid creating waste in the first place.
Energy & Water
Energy use is the source of about 20 percent of our total greenhouse gas emissions. By 2030, we plan to reduce emissions from natural gas by 15 percent and from electricity by 95 percent. Caregivers can help us reach these goals by prioritizing energy efficiency in design and operations, reducing use of energy, and by encouraging their local ministry to purchase energy efficient equipment. We reduce water use by purchasing water-efficient equipment, fixing leaks promptly, choosing high efficiency plumbing fixtures and adding more drought-tolerant landscaping.
Agriculture & Food
Modern agriculture is a significant contributor to climate change, contributing 11% of the nation’s greenhouse gases. Providence is committed to reducing the carbon intensity of meals served, to reduce food waste both in food preparation and post-consumer through composting, and to ensure healthy sustainable foods are served. Caregivers can help improve access to healthy, sustainable foods by growing gardens or taking part in community-supported agriculture (CSAs).
Chemicals
In clinical settings, many ministries are working to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions from volatile anesthetic agents and nitrous oxide, with a goal of decommissioning all piped nitrous systems. Our organization is committed to reducing unnecessary exposure of caregivers and patients to chemicals of concern by understanding when they are present in our products and what safety measures can be taken. Our Environmentally Preferred Purchasing Policy guides us to make environmentally smart choices in products and services.
Transportation
The burning of gasoline and diesel contributes significantly to climate change and air pollution. As an organization, Providence is working to decrease transportation emissions and pollution by decreasing unnecessary business travel, supporting the transition to electric vehicles (for fleet vehicles, caregivers, and the public), and working with our distributors to minimize the distance products and supplies travel to reach our ministries. Caregivers can contribute by reducing non-essential business travel and use of single-occupancy vehicles (SOVs) for commuting.
We REACH: Climate Resilience and Adaptation
We REACH is a mnemonic that identifies five key elements the plan addresses: Resiliency, Equity, Adaptation, Climate and Health. Providence has long been committed to caring for the communities we serve and partnering with organizations and agencies in the community. We have turned our attention toward environmental justice and climate resiliency and the WE REACH framework focuses on building climate-related resiliency in operations and the communities we serve.
Providence is focusing on three areas of climate resilience:
- Clinical care and operations: Preparing caregivers to continue to deliver excellent care in the face of climate change and with changing patient needs.
- Critical infrastructure: Ensuring health care facilities remain open and safe to deliver care in times of extreme weather.
- Community connections: Advancing collaborative partnerships that support the needs of those who are disproportionately impacted by climate change and extreme weather events.
As a clinical health care professional working at a Providence facility, here are two other important ways to get involved.
Join the Climate-smart Collective
Health Care Without Harm's Climate-smart Collective, and its Physician Network subgroup, provide a platform for U.S. health professionals to amplify their influence and advance the health care sustainability movement.
Join the Nurses Climate Challenge
As one of the most trusted professions worldwide, nurses are ideal advocates for increased climate action in the health care sector.
For more information:
Questions? Please contact the Providence Environmental Stewardship Team: [email protected].
For Practice Greenhealth-specific questions or guidance not answered above, please reach out directly to Providence's sustainability strategy manager, Kate Gottlieb at [email protected].
