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“By working collaboratively, it is possible to drive innovative solutions to reduce the environmental footprint of health care, while also reducing costs for both suppliers and purchasers.”
– Elizabeth Eldridge, Kaiser Permanente director of sustainable sourcing
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Hospitals and health care facilities generate a staggering amount of plastic waste each year resulting in equally large disposal costs and environmental impacts.
Kaiser Permanente’s environmental services and waste management teams discovered a waste and plastic reduction solution for disinfectant… Read More
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Practice Greenhealth’s 20 years of experience developing policy and programs for sustainable health care practices has guided our creation of tools and resources that empower hospitals to reduce both the costs and environmental impacts of caring for their community’s health needs.
Based on input from our members, we’ve made sure our resources capture the best practices and challenges at every stage of a program’s development and include practical guidance for:
Setting baselines
Identifying goals
Achieving stakeholder support
Implementing practice
Measuring and reporting results… Read More
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Practice Greenhealth is here to guide your health care organization to integrate sustainability as a strategic priority and become a change agent for creating healthier, sustainable, and more resilient communities.
Health care organizations and companies of all sizes are realizing the many benefits that come from embedding sustainability into their operations including efficiency improvements, cost savings, reduced regulatory risk, enhanced employee engagement and retention, greater stakeholder satisfaction, improved public health, and public relations gains.
Following key elements of a… Read More
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Impact starts with our partners — organizations that see a world where health care has a broader aim of healthy people, living in equitable and resilient communities, on a sustainable planet — taking action and creating lasting change.
Why join Practice Greenhealth?
Sustainability is a vital component of any health care organization’s strategic direction. When tied to business and mission-driven goals, sustainable programs have benefits for the financial bottom line, patient satisfaction and well-being, employee engagement, and the communities you serve.
The Practice Greenhealth network… Read More
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Change happens through people – use our guidance to build a culture where sustainability is everyone’s job.
The case for resourcing and staffing sustainability programming within health care has grown significantly over the last decade. Even so, it is imperative for an organization, and in particular executive leadership, to prioritize ways to engage all staff, not just those with sustainability in their job title, to realize all the benefits sustainability can bring to the organization.
Staff engagement strategies:
Create program visibility
Build capacity for sustainability work and… Read More
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Hazardous waste
Hazardous waste is a small percentage of a hospital’s total generated waste, but it has a big impact on the waste management budget, costing on average more than 15 percent of total waste spending.
Hospitals need to have a clear understanding of how much hazardous waste they generate as different rules apply based on this total. It is also important to understand the federal and state laws that govern the definition and disposal of this costly waste stream.
The Practice Greenhealth waste tracker helps our members identify how much hazardous and universal waste they… Read More
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KEY TAKEAWAYS
Clinical care is the single largest factor driving health care emissions, which means the health care sector will not be able to reduce emissions sufficiently without engaging health professionals in efforts to reduce the climate impact of clinical care.
Mass General Brigham (MGB) created four medical/clinical director of sustainability positions in recognition of the need for health professional leadership to advance climate-smart health care.
Through the leadership of the health professionals in these roles, MGB reduced its environmental impact and… Read More
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Regulated medical waste, also called red bag waste, biohazard waste, or infectious medical waste is one of the most expensive waste streams to manage.
Though it can make up less than 8 percent of a hospital’s total waste production, it can cost more than 40 percent of their waste management budgets to handle.
Over the last 20 years, we’ve learned a lot about the impacts of regulated medical waste and its disposal from the hospitals we work with.
By narrowing down the scope of regulated medical waste into several sub-categories based on levels of risk they pose, hospitals can… 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 1,700 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.