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WASHINGTON (June 30, 2022) – At a White House event today, the Biden administration and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) celebrated the progress and dedication of 61 of the largest U.S. hospital and health sector organizations, each having recently signed HHS’ Health Care Sector Pledge, expressing their commitment to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions and increasing climate resilience.
Health Care Without Harm, an international nongovernmental organization, joins signatories from the health care sector. Health Care Without Harm’s affiliated network Practice Greenhealth… Read More
Type: Press
Hospitals and food banks will provide nutritious food to communities in need across the country.
June 7, 2016 (Reston, Virginia) – Practice Greenhealth and Feeding America announced today a new collaboration to help Americans living at risk of hunger. The nation’s largest domestic hunger relief organization and leading health care sustainability membership organization have created a nationwide program to donate excess food from hospitals and health care facilities to local food banks.
More than 48 million Americans are food insecure, according to the USDA.
“Building upon its commitment to… Read More
Type: Press
This exemplary document from Advocate Health Care demonstrates how this system achieved the Healthy Interiors goal:
“Effective immediately, purchases of freestanding furniture and medical furnishings for any Advocate capital or renovation project are to be specified without the intentional use of the following chemicals: halogenated fire retardants formaldehyde, perfluorinated compounds, and PVC (also known as
vinyl).”
Type: Resources
Create an action plan to reduce your hospital or health care facility's GHG emissions by identifying and prioritizing possible interventions. Identify interventions by scope, activity, or category and estimate the costs and savings of each intervention in terms of dollars, the return on investment (ROI), or reduction in metric tons of carbon-dioxide-equivalent (MTCO2e), an industry standard measure. The plan also includes space to recognize potential challenges that may arise during intervention implementation to allow for a comprehensive and transparent process.
Type: Resources
(Bay Area Council Economic Institute) Climate change remains a serious threat to human health, and healthcare organizations in California, across the U.S., and globally can be catalysts in creating a climate-smart future.
California’s widely varying weather, coastal location, and large population mean the state is feeling the effects of climate change sooner and more severely than other regions. Severe heat waves, prolonged drought, uncontrollable wildfires, increased flooding, poor air quality, invasive species, and increased disease have already begun to impact every aspect of life in the… Read More
Type: Resources
Hospital workers experience an 8.6 percent higher burden of illnesses such as diabetes, congestive heart failure, hypertension, and obesity than the general U.S. workforce. Although patient meals are carefully calibrated for their nutritional profile and tailored for specific diets, food and beverages sold in hospital retail settings are often out of line with dietary recommendations. There are several possible reasons for this: a perceived consumer preference for salt, fat, and sugar, the low cost and revenue-generating capabilities of unhealthy foods, and a desire to serve “comfort foods”… Read More
Type: Resources
[Chicago, IL, October 16, 2024] — The U.S. Food Waste Pact, a national voluntary agreement focused on reducing food waste in the U.S. through pre-competitive collaboration and data sharing, announced today that Health Care Without Harm, which works to make health care institutions around the world more sustainable, has become its latest signatory. This marks an important opportunity for the U.S. Food Waste Pact to extend its reach to hospitals across the U.S., which can generate nearly 290k tons of food waste per year.
In the United States, 38% of food produced in the United States—nearly 89… Read More
Type: Press
Thresa Pattee, our beloved colleague, friend, and posthumous recipient of our 2024 Environmental Health Hero Award
Each year, we select an Environmental Health Hero to recognize and celebrate their contributions to the environmental health movement. This year, Health Care Without Harm is honoring one of our own staff members who passed away in March after a valiant battle with bone cancer.
Thresa Irene Pattee, as all who knew her would agree, was a force of nature. In her eight years at Health Care Without Harm, she brought a passion for the mission of the organization that was matched… Read More
Type: Press
"Safe haven in the storm: Protecting lives and margins with climate-smart health care" analyzes billions of dollars in losses and resilience-related savings to demonstrate how preparing for extreme weather can make or break a health system.
"Safe haven in the storm" examines extreme weather's bottom line damages to hospitals, such as suspension or closure of emergency departments and other clinical services, supply chain disruptions and price increases, and reduced clinical demand and reimbursement rates. It also documents less-publicized but proven financial harm such as the loss of… Read More
Type: Resources
This document presents the World Health Organization (WHO) Operational framework for building climate resilient health systems. The framework responds to the demand from Member States and partners for guidance on how the health sector and its operational basis in health systems can systematically and effectively address the challenges increasingly presented by climate variability and change. This framework has been designed in light of the increasing evidence of climate change and its associated health risks (1); global, regional and national policy mandates to protect population health (2);… Read More
Type: Resources
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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.
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.