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Chemicals are found throughout the health care setting, from conventional cleaning products to furniture that releases hazards into the air over time. Scientific evidence continues to grow about the potential impact of hazardous chemicals on human health. A few reasons to be concerned include the following:
Virtually all people are exposed regularly to a complex mixture of industrial chemicals and other hazardous pollutants, according to government studies.
Many commonly used chemicals are linked to a wide range of negative health effects, including cancer, birth defects, and infertility,… Read More
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Scientific consensus shows climate change is already damaging human health and health care delivery and will have a greater impact in the future. Health care is at the front line of climate change, bearing the costs of increased diseases and more frequent extreme weather events.
Hospitals and health systems are addressing health threats posed by climate change and air pollution, in alignment with their missions to heal. Many are doing so by implementing business-smart initiatives that also protect their communities from climate change by:
Reducing the carbon footprint of hospital… Read More
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Hospitals and other institutions through the United States are leveraging their food service operation to support environmental and human health.
By creating a sustainable food service vision statement and policy, hospitals move from isolated projects, sustained by the interest and involvement of a few staff, to a formal framework for understanding and making progress.
Conducting an inventory or assessment before setting the policy and plans is recommended as part of this process in order to include effective goals, benchmarks and tracking, and performance systems.
Adoption of a… Read More
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Nonprofit hospitals are required to provide community benefit programs to maintain their tax-exempt status. Recent changes to community benefit regulations require hospitals to conduct community health needs assessments (CHNAs) every three years and to develop implementation strategies to address significant health needs in their communities.
To identify the community benefit lead at your facility, a good first step is to obtain your hospital’s CHNA, implementation strategy, or community benefit report. These are likely to be posted on the hospital’s website. Often a contact will be listed… Read More
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Hospital’s food and nutrition departments can help ensure healthy food access both within and outside their walls.
Expanding healthy food access
Many health care system staff — especially those working in food service, nutrition, and procurement departments — are pursuing activities to increase access to healthy foods.
At the same time, community benefit staff are undertaking community health activities to address health priorities such as food insecurity, diet-related diseases, increasing fruit and vegetable consumption.
By working together, these groups can share expertise and resources… Read More
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As a sustainability professional, you can connect your community benefit department with healthy food program implementers in your food service department to help align your organization’s sustainability efforts with community benefit investment opportunities.
Connecting the dots
Collaboration among sustainability staff and community benefit staff can additionally align and amplify “climate co-benefit” initiatives that directly improve public health.
By working together, these departments can share expertise and resources to more effectively — and simultaneously — address environmental and… Read More
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The health sector must work collaboratively with health care suppliers to decarbonize the supply chain and build climate resilience for the entire value chain.
“Catalyzing Collective Action to Decarbonize Healthcare: A Roadmap for Health Systems and MedTech Suppliers” was published in partnership with Kaiser Permanente, Accenture, Practice Greenhealth, and Health Care Without Harm. It consolidates feedback from a round table of health systems and their top suppliers, as well as group purchasing organizations, along with findings from additional subject matter experts and secondary research… Read More
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Hospitals are in a unique position to support healthy food access programs that respond to needs in their communities.
Triple win
By tying local food systems development to patient and community health outcomes health care, can achieve its core mission, reduce the cost of health care related to food insecurity, and deepen community relations.
Hospital campuses can be great places to host farmers markets, food pantries, or as a site for distributing community-supported agriculture (CSA) shares.
A growing number of hospitals have their own garden or farm on their grounds that is connected… Read More
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Here you will find guidance, resources, tools, and ways to engage with your peers and other stakeholders across the value chain to support your food journey and help achieve your organization’s priorities and goals.
The way our food is produced, processed, transported, consumed, and disposed of has profound impacts on individual, community, and planetary health. Hospitals and health systems across the country are achieving their organizational priorities by focusing on food-related initiatives.
Make the case
Core values for a better food system
These values underpin the goals… Read More
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Reducing water consumption is a great place for hospitals and health systems to start improving their environmental impact and sustainability practices. There are many reasons water is and should be an area of focus:
Hospitals use approximately 7% of all water use in commercial and institutional U.S. facilities, which is costly when the price of water has slowly been rising over the last decade.
By 2030, it’s estimated that global water supply will only be able to meet 60 percent of our population’s needs.
Though hospitals are often exempted from water conservation regulations in times… Read More
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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.