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(Transportation toolkit) Transportation intersects with health care facilities in the ways that employees, patrons, and supplies travel to and from hospitals and satellite facilities, all of which contribute to poor air quality, hospital greenhouse gas emissions, and adverse environmental and community health outcomes. The health care sector is in a position to model and advocate for alternative and healthier modes of transit. Innovative transportation strategies can improve individual and public health by inviting employees out of their cars and into more active and healthy modes of travel,… Read More
Type: Resources
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 more narrowly… Read More
Type: Basic page
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston breaks down different types of recyclable materials and how they are recycled in this exemplary flyer.
Type: Resources
Water used in hospitals and other health care facilities comprises 7 percent of the total water use in commercial and institutional facilities in the United States. The largest uses of water in hospitals are cooling equipment, plumbing fixtures, landscaping, and medical process rinses. WaterSense at Work: Best Management Practices for Commercial and Institutional Facilities promotes water-efficient techniques that can be applied across a wide range of facilities with varying water needs.
Type: Resources
(Less water toolkit) This document can be used as a template for creating a poster on using less water with an employee testimonial.
Type: Resources
In August 2014, Virginia Mason Medical Center (VMMC) engaged McKinstry to create a long-term energy and water use reduction master plan focused on their downtown campus. The overarching goal during the development of the plan was to provide a roadmap and multi-year action plan for how VMMC can reduce energy and water use to achieve the 2030 Seattle District energy goals. This is an opportunity to upgrade aging infrastructure and improve VMMC’s facilities for better patient and staff satisfaction and patient outcomes. This document is the culmination of that development and includes both the… Read More
Type: Resources
Waste is a common challenge for health care organizations, no matter their size. Waste is complex and expensive to manage. Hospitals produce more than 5 million tons of waste each year.
Hospitals generate over 29 pounds of waste per bed per day. A waste plan is critical for any sustainability programming.
Every hospital is challenged by the complexity of health care waste and limited recycling and management options. Recycling isn’t enough. Member hospitals who look upstream by studying incoming material and then reduce both inputs and outputs together see greater reductions in total… Read More
Type: Basic page
This resource provides a sample policy that includes direction on vendor behavior with respect to a health care facility's medical device reprocessing program.
Type: Resources
A keystone team of graduate students, led by the UW Sustainability Office, conducted research into the UW’s air travel in order to gauge how much air travel contributed to the university’s overall greenhouse gas emissions. The UW’s Climate Action Plan (CAP) has set a goal for UW to be climate neutral by 2050 and professional travel accounts for approximately 11% of the university’s total emissions.
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.
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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.