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“Thanks to the data analyzed through the awards platform at Practice Greenhealth, we're in a healthier position to categorically mitigate the various wastes associated with health care operations, while improving patient and community health. For example, we came to understand the hospital's water usage, while better than the median, is now a focal point of reduction."
– Ali Wolf, Asprius project manager
Environmental stewardship in a health care environment can take many forms. From waste reduction and safer chemicals to building design and energy conservation, there are an array of… Read More
Type: Press
Practice Greenhealth’s 2019 Visionary Leader Award winner Barbara Tretheway arrived at HealthPartners in 2000 wanting to make a difference at work and in the community.
As general counsel, much of her focus was on governance, including helping to ensure the board of directors was governing the health care organization in the most efficient and impactful way possible.
“Every corporation whether for profit or not for profit is a citizen of the community that they live in and is judged in many societal ways. ‘Are you proud that they are in your community, or are they harming your… Read More
Type: Press
The surgery department is sometimes referred to as the soul or epicenter of a hospital for a number of reasons: It can bring in up to 60% of a facility’s revenue, and the reputation of the operating room is often tied directly to the reputation of the hospital.
At the same time, 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 anesthetic gases alone make up around 5% of an organization’s greenhouse gas footprint.
All of this boils down to a department rich in… Read More
Type: Press
Plant-forward is here to stay
Hospitals throughout the nation are serving less meat and a plethora of gourmet plant-forward meals that would be could be found in the menu at a high-end, trendy restaurant. As Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York discovered, this strategy satisfies customer demand while meeting patient health and environmental goals. They are not alone. Fifty-eight percent of facilities in our network reduced the amount of meat they purchased for cafeteria and patient service, according to data from the most recent Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence… Read More
Type: Press
Our cars, our health
The American Lung Association’s 19th annual “state of the air” report found that 134 million Americans – more than 41% – lived in counties with unhealthy levels of either ozone or particulate pollution in 2014-2016. In a country with over 270 million vehicles, America’s air suffers from tailpipe pollution. Health impacts of air pollution include asthma and respiratory illness, heart disease and stroke, cancer, low birth weights due to reproductive toxicants, premature death, and traffic morbidity and mortality. In Massachusetts, where one in 11 people already suffer from… Read More
Type: Press
By Scott Rich, Practice Greenhealth marketing and growth associate director
Over the summer months and into autumn, I had the opportunity to get up close and personal with Practice Greenhealth partners, prospects, and advisory services clients out on the road in Idaho, Utah, Missouri, Ohio, Indiana, and Michigan.
Here are a few highlights from “the road:”
University of Utah Health (Salt Lake City)
The University of Utah Health system is one of the newest partners in the Practice Greenhealth network and quite possibly the most excited. In addition to the professional hospital staff, the… Read More
Type: Press
Ready to amp up your sales and customer satisfaction while simultaneously reducing your environmental impact? Then the Health Care Culinary Contest – which opens October 1 – is the perfect addition to your sustainability work. This year’s contest builds off the growing popularity of plant-forward meal options, which require less water and land to produce, have a significantly lower carbon footprint, and have a variety of health benefits.
Engage your culinary professionals in the Health Care Culinary Contest to get recognized at CleanMed in Orlando.
Learn more
Type: Press
By Shanda Demorest, Practice Greenhealth member engagement manager
The ask. Long before I joined Practice Greenhealth in May 2019, Karoline Sperling at Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park, Minn., heard I was a nurse looking to talk about climate change with whomever I could. Fast-forward several months to August, when we reconnected around the ask, which had blossomed to speak about environmental sustainability in health care, the health impacts of climate change, and what people in the infection prevention specialty can do about it. Complex indeed. Fortunately, this… Read More
Type: Press
Long commutes. Congested roads. No available parking. These are familiar headaches for staff, patients, and administration at almost every hospital and health care facility, including St. John’s Medical and Living Center in Jackson, Wyo. A parking space there costs $10,000 per year to manage and maintain. Instead of building additional parking spaces, the hospital chose instead to pay their employees to “liberate their parking space” from May through September 2018.
“We set a goal to reduce the employee drive-alone rate 3% over the summer months,” explains Lisa Smith, the facility's… Read More
Type: Press
New report provides first-ever estimate of health care’s global climate footprint, calls for zero emissions
If the global health care sector were a country, it would be the fifth-largest greenhouse gas emitter on the planet, according to Health care’s climate footprint: How the health sector contributes to the global climate crisis and opportunities for action, a new report by Health Care Without Harm in collaboration with Arup.
Establishing the first-ever estimate of health care’s global climate footprint, the report finds health care’s footprint is equivalent to 4.4% of global net… Read More
Type: Press
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.