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Plant Powered 30 is a 30-day challenge to inspire your employees to choose a plant-forward meal once per day (and hopefully more!). Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth have created all the promotional materials you will need to run this fun and engaging challenge for your employees.
Plant Powered 30 is part of Plant-Forward Future, a curated set of resources from Practice Greenhealth, Health Care Without Harm, and our partners that will help health care facilities set a plant-forward goal, menu and market plant-forward dishes, and track their progress.
Have you run Plant… Read More
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Bulky materials such as ceiling tiles, bricks, glass, carpeting, cabinetry, and cement from construction and renovation projects can be expensive to remove. Many of Practice Greenhealth member hospitals have been able to reduce the amount of construction and demolition debris that goes to landfills by nearly 80 percent by:
Building recycling and reuse goals and requirements into new construction contracts
Purchasing fewer materials or purchasing more recyclable and/or reusable construction materials at the outset of a project
Better segregation of materials such as furniture, cabinetry,… Read More
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Many of our member hospitals have made eliminating polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and the plasticizer di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) from clinical products and devices a top priority, by creating PVC- and DEHP-free purchasing policies as part of their larger institutional safer chemicals policy, and by targeting specific hospital areas, such as the NICU, or product categories one-by-one.
Switching to products that are free of both PVC and DEHP is beneficial to patient safety. The Food and Drug Administration has recommended hospitals limit exposures to DEHP for sensitive populations, especially… Read More
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Once a quarter, up to four affiliate premium partners will be featured in an interactive session with breakouts to introduce, share, and spark conversation with the Practice Greenhealth network at large. Affiliate partners are manufacturers, suppliers, service providers, or other supply chain partners. As a key player in the health care supply chain, collaboration is paramount to our work.
“I really enjoyed the information and plan to share it with my colleagues.”
– Forum participant
Affiliate premium partners may share information about their company's sustainability efforts and… Read More
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More than a third of our member hospitals have identified furniture and furnishings as an area where they’d like to reduce patient, employee, and visitor exposure to chemicals of concern, especially as evidence shows that many of the chemicals used in these products off-gas, or migrate out, from the finished product and get into the air and dust, exposing employees, patients, and visitors to the chemicals.
Targeted chemicals of concern in furniture and furnishings include:
Formaldehyde, a known human carcinogen, found in furniture, cabinets, countertops, and many other products.
Flame… Read More
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The built environment plays an important role in both the promotion of healing in patients and the health of building occupants. Most green building data is related to design and construction policies, planning, and standards – including information on building materials and furnishings.
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Hand hygiene remains one of the most critical infection prevention strategies in health care. However, common antimicrobial ingredients, such as triclosan and triclocarban, which are used widely in health care for hand hygiene, have also been shown to pose health risks to long-term users. Health care workers can wash or sanitize their hands in a single shift as many as 100 times according to CDC, leading to measurable exposures.
The Food and Drug Administration restricted the use of triclosan and 23 other ingredients in antiseptic washes and rubs for use in health care, effective December… Read More
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Transportation is a major contributor to hazardous air pollution that can cause respiratory disease, asthma, preterm birth, low birth weight, and other health impacts and the largest source of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. An array of strategies contribute to driving down emissions from transportation – many of which require complex data tracking.
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Climate change is the most serious and pressing environmental issue and an emerging threat to human health. Working to determine emissions produced by various aspects of hospital operations is a top priority to support mitigation and resilience goals.
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Because of the artificially low pricing of water in most of the country, water use management and tracking have often been neglected. In many communities, hospitals are one of the largest commercial users of water – and water shortages can be sudden and unexpected. Effectively tracking and measuring the amount of water used for different purposes is an important foundational step in developing water reduction goals and targets.
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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.