Tools and resources

Spectrum Health: Medical plastics recycling in the OR

• Greening the Operating Room Case Study
• Recycling
• Case Study

To become a more sustainable organization, Spectrum Health hired a sustainability coordinator to address recycling. Spectrum Health’s goal was to reduce its overall waste stream by 30 percent by focusing on regulated medical waste reduction and recycling efforts.

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Seattle Children’s Green Building Design Commitment (2016)

• Green Building
• Seattle Children's Hospital
• Exemplary Document
• Policy

Seattle Children's believes that green buildings are healthier environments for their occupants, and building green is integral to the core mission of providing top-quality healthcare. Through thoughtful, sustainable facility master planning, Seattle Children's future development will consider habitat, energy and water, which are essential to community design and reducing demand on the local…

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Seattle Children’s Garden Seattle Children's (2016)

• Green Building
• Seattle Children's Hospital
• Exemplary Document
• Food
• Report

Seattle Children’s Hospital has promoted onsite food producing vegetable gardens for a couple of reasons. The first is to connect patients and families to healthy foods and let children experience harvesting, cooking and eating local organic produce. The second is to test the capacity for supplying produce to kitchen operations.   In the teaching garden, nutritionists hold classes on growing…

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Seattle Children’s Garden Flyer Seattle Children's (2016)

• Green Building
• Seattle Children's Hospital
• Exemplary Document
• Poster

Seattle Children’s has a large campus with a huge variety of plant and tree specimens.  When the 2013 Building Hope was planned, one wing of the top floor was devoted to garden spaces.  The plan includes a healing garden space for cancer patients and their families as the Cancer Care unit is adjacent to the space.  Next to the healing garden is a large rooftop garden to mitigate storm water…

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Sample mercury elimination and management policy

• Exemplary Document
• Chemicals
• Mercury
• Policy

The purpose of this policy is to provide guidelines for removing mercury‐containing equipment where safe, effective, mercury‐ free alternatives exist and ensuring the safe handling of remaining mercury‐containing chemicals and equipment.   

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University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview: OR kit reformulation

• Greening the Operating Room Case Study
• Waste
• Case Study

Through the establishment of a voluntary operating room green team, University of Minnesota Medical Center's Dr. Rafael Andrade has been dedicated to improving the health of the environment by working to reduce the amount of waste his procedures generate.

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University of Rochester Strong Memorial Hospital: Integrated Pest Management case study

• Chemicals
• Exemplary Document
• University of Rochester Strong Memorial Hospital

In the process of eliminating pests, health care facilities can expose patients and employees to toxic chemicals through the inhalation, ingestion, and absorption of pesticide residues. Most vulnerable to pesticides are pregnant women, infants and children, the elderly, and those with compromised immune systems, allergies, and sensitivity to pesticides. These populations are present in abundance…

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WHO: Health impacts of air pollution poster

• Climate and Health
• Leadership and education
• Air pollution

Poster from the World Health Organization illustrates the health impacts of air pollution.

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Environmental considerations for water systems (boilers, cooling towers)

• Sustainable procurement
• Water

These suggested environmental considerations focus on cooling towers, boilers, and other water systems, listed separately, that can be included as part of a water systems contract for health care facilities. The suggested environmental considerations can be used in RFPs or RFIs to identify opportunities for products that are environmentally preferable and/or contribute to LEED credits.

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Water savings in the sterile processing department

• Water
• Less Water
• Presentation
• Providence St. Peter Hospital
• Water Case Study

(Less water toolkit) Providence St. Peter Hospital was able to significantly reduce its water usage and related utility costs by evaluating and making changes within its sterile processing department. This presentation demonstrates the repairs, upgrades, and protocol changes that were implemented in order to achieve these savings.

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