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Reducing surplus food is at the top of the EPA food recovery hierarchy because it has the greatest financial, environmental, and social impacts.
Use our guidance to determine which source reduction strategies will work best for your facility and how to integrate them into your standard operating policies and procedures. Track your impact, and share results with leadership.
Assemble the team
In addition to your core team, you may want to include people with roles such as the executive chef, nutrition and dietetics, inventory manager, prep, line cooks, catering, and front of… Read More
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Executive championship brings credibility and authority to a program’s mission and goals while setting a tone from the top that this work is important.
Establishing a successful sustainability program requires more than engaged leadership. It takes an authentic commitment from senior- and executive-level leaders backed up with resourcing, governance, modeling new norms, and ultimately shifting the organization’s culture. According to the 2023 Practice Greenhealth sustainability benchmark report, all top 25 performing health systems across the United States had an executive-level champion.… Read More
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Who should I contact about my current/previous status?
Please contact our Marketing & Growth Team at join@practicegreenhealth.org.
I’m interested in learning more about Practice Greenhealth, but my company or organization is not in the health care industry/sector. Who should I reach out to with questions?
Please contact our Marketing & Growth Team at join@practicegreenhealth.org.
I’d like to refer a like-minded company or organization. How can I do this?
Send an email with the contact information to join@practicegreenhealth.org or direct your referral to the interest… Read More
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Practice Greenhealth's Kaeleigh Sheehan facilitating a workshop at CleanMed.
Though a tiny percentage of a hospital's total physical footprint, operating rooms have a big impact on hospital budgets.
The health care sector produces 10% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S and hospitals represent 36% alone. And operating rooms are their hot spots for emissions, waste, and energy use. A typical OR can make up half of a hospital’s aggregate costs, produce 33% of a facility’s waste, consume more energy per square foot than any other area of the hospital, and… Read More
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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… Read More
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Your team will be strongest if it represents the interests of three important Cs: care, cafeteria, and community. As you move through this section, consider how care teams and clinical staff, cafeteria and food service teams, and the community – including patients, neighbors of your facility, and the local civic and business communities – can inform your process and outcomes.
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Rather than disposing of supplies, equipment, and devices that are in good working order when a facility is finished with them, many of our member hospitals report they’ve identified ways to reuse, donate, remanufacture, or take advantage of take-backs for these items.
While it takes time to identify and arrange these reuse strategies, the costs saved by reducing haul-away disposal costs are substantial.
Practice Greenhealth offers tools, resources, and case studies to help our members to assess the best ways to reuse or donate equipment and other items rather than create waste.
Reuse,… Read More
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Introduction to carbon offsets
A carbon offset is a project or activity that reduces emissions of greenhouse gases to compensate for emissions created elsewhere. The Clean Development Mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change offers the public and private sector in high-income nations the opportunity to purchase carbon credits from offset projects in low- or middle-income nations. Common types of offset projects include forestry and land use, renewable energy, energy efficiency, methane destruction, industrial gases, fuel switching, and clean cookstoves.… Read More
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Practice Greenhealth provides a range of tools and resources to support the awards application process. The following resources are available to Practice Greenhealth members.
Awards levels
In 2021, Practice Greenhealth is suspending the tiered awards structure, including Top 25 and Circles of Excellence, in favor of a single, broad recognition category for environmental achievement in health care facilities. We will also be recognizing Making Medicine Mercury-Free for individual facilities and System for Change recognition for health systems.
Awards scoring resource
This resource offers… Read More
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Health care is joining organizations across the country in the goal to reduce food waste by 50% by 2030.Food can be wasted but is never “waste.” As a valuable resource, it does not belong in a landfill. Landfilling food contributes to climate change and is a missed opportunity for addressing food insecurity. Our guidance, which aligns with the EPA food recovery hierarchy and evolving state and federal regulations, leads you through each strategy from source reduction to food donation to recycling and will help you make a plan for achieving your waste reduction goals. Assemble the… Read More
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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.
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.