Tools and resources

Waste Management & Recycling

• Waste

When contracting for Waste Management Services, consider the following suggested RFP questions to assess services available to your organization. This resource was created to provide purchasing guidance to support your organization's sustainability goals in waste reduction.  

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Suggested Environmental Considerations for Dietary Plastic Kits

• Food

The suggested environmental disclosure questions may be used in your RFI/RFP to help inform your purchasing decisions. Dietary plastic kits may include cutlery, straws, paper napkins and seasonings. However, not all of the questions are applicable for all products.

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Suggested Environmental Considerations for Disposable Food Ware

• Sustainable food service operations

The suggested environmental disclosure questions may be used in your RFI/RFP to help inform your purchasing decisions. These questions can be applied to cutlery; plates, bowls and cups (for hot and cold applications); take-out packaging (such as clamshells, boxes or containers with separate lids); and ancillary items such as lids, and straws). These questions would not pertain to other food…

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Vendors of Compostable or Recyclable Food Service Ware and Bags

• Sustainable food service operations

A list of vendors of compostable or recyclable food service ware and bags.

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Sustainable Food Service Wares: An Overview

• Sustainable food service operations

The challenges with Styrofoam, how composting and recycling works with food ware, and how to select sustainable food ware.

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Sustainability within Rural Hospitals: Mercy Hospital Lebanon

• Energy

Mercy Hospital Lebanon leaders and co-workers have worked to overcome challenges and implemented successful sustainability practices to reduce environmental impacts and reduce operational costs. Through a cost-effective retro-commissioning project focused on its heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system, the facility was able to reduce energy consumption by 23 percent, with savings…

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Safer hand hygiene toolkit

• Member Toolkit
• Chemicals
• Hand Hygiene
• Antimicrobial
• Toolkit

Infection prevention and control in health care are of utmost importance. However, triclosan and triclocarban, antimicrobial ingredients commonly used in hand hygiene products in the health care setting, have been shown by multiple studies to pose risks for both employees and the environment. In response to these concerns, Practice Greenhealth developed a goal and how-to guide to eliminate the…

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Hudson Hospital & Clinic Hudson, Wisconsin: Recycling

• Waste
• Solid waste
• Recycling
• Case Study

Environmental degradation of the St. Croix River prompted community leaders of its border communities to come together to address the issue and resolve to improve river health by improving operations in their respective organizations. Hudson Hospital & Clinic successfully implemented a paper use reduction initiative and enhanced recycling program, which became a building block to ongoing…

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How-to guide: Recycling step-by-step

• Waste
• Solid waste
• Recycling
• Guide

This step-by-step guide will help a health care facility achieve a 15 percent recycling rate compared to total waste. 

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Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital: Climate and health resilience

• Climate and Health
• Case Study
• Resilience

The 132-patient room, 378,000 square foot Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital was built to replace an aging facility originally designed as a nursing home and that could no longer meet the demands of the community in its existing space. Offered as a development site by the City of Boston, the hospital has become an exemplar of resilience strategy and planning. It's design integrates essential…

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