Practice Greenhealth is here to guide your health care organization to integrate sustainability as a strategic priority and become a change agent for creating healthier, sustainable, and more resilient communities.
Health care organizations and companies of all sizes are realizing the many benefits that come from embedding sustainability into their operations including efficiency improvements, cost savings, reduced regulatory risk, enhanced employee engagement and retention, greater stakeholder satisfaction, improved public health, and public relations gains.
Following key elements of a well-established sustainability process, hospitals, health systems, and health care facilities can achieve measurable results. Some organizations begin at the top by explicitly including sustainability objectives in their overall strategic plan. Others start with an individual project that captures the imagination, energy, and commitment of the organization.
Every partner starts with a baseline evaluation
Following the completion of the Program Fundamentals Assessment – Practice Greenhealth’s baseline evaluation – a sustainability strategy manager assesses your organization’s stage of sustainability across 10 elements of effective governance:
- Executive leadership
- Governance structures
- Stakeholder engagement
- Organizational commitment
- Goal setting and strategy
- Data governance
- Board involvement
- Employee engagement
- Human resources support
- Communication
To learn more, view a PDF of the assessment and our frequently asked questions. New partners and other stakeholders assisting in the completion of the baseline evaluation can access the assessment below.
Stages of sustainability for health care
Nearly all organizations go through phases or stages of sustainability as they develop a new way of doing business. Based on our more than two decades of work with hospitals and health systems, we believe there are five stages along the sustainability journey.
After using the Program Fundamentals Assessment to identify your organization's stage of sustainability across 10 elements of governance, your sustainability strategy manager works with you to co-create a 12-month partner plan for success. Each plan consists of tailored recommendations for peer learning and engagement through the Accelerating Health Care Sustainability series, an individualized consulting schedule, and actions to advance your program.
Apply proven guidance
No matter where you are on your journey, our proven guidance will help you establish strong fundamentals of sustainability governance or identify and prioritize opportunities to strengthen your existing program. Partners are encouraged to consult with their sustainability strategy manager on the most effective way to engage internal stakeholders in the success of their 12-month plan, which covers the four core components below.
Connect to accelerate your program
Join our Accelerating Health Care Sustainability series to learn from your peers’ successes and insights.
Each introductory session, held early in the week, is paired with a discussion forum held later that week. Introduction sessions ensure partners have a core understanding of the basics of the associated topic. Discussion forums serve two purposes. For partners who attended the introductory session, the forums provide a way to continue the conversation and explore ways to move the concepts forward. For partners who already have experience in the topic and may not have attended the introductory session, the forums provide a way to connect with and learn from their peers how to overcome barriers or roadblocks they have encountered and get new perspectives on ways to strengthen their approach. New partners are encouraged to attend each pairing; however, attending the introductory session is not a prerequisite for participation in the discussion forum.
The recommended audiences for all sessions include:
- the primary sustainability leadership at a system level
- primary facility-level points of contact
- sustainability or green team leadership
| EVENTS | TOPICS COVERED | ADDITIONAL AUDIENCES |
|
Introduction to sustainability governance Sustainability governance forum |
governance structures, strategic plans, charters, identifying and engaging stakeholders, staffing, resourcing | Executive sponsor, marketing, and/or communications colleagues |
|
Introduction to data & goal setting Data & goal setting forum |
data governance, baselining, impact areas, metrics, awards, goal-setting | Data or analytics colleagues |
|
Introduction to securing leadership support Securing leadership support forum |
engaging leadership, making the case for sustainability to leadership | Executive sponsor, clinical or medical directors of sustainability |
|
Introduction to creating a culture of sustainability Creating a culture of sustainability forum |
working with human resources, employee engagement, sustainability communications | Human resources, marketing and/or communications colleagues, any engaged staff |
The session topics in the series are not sequential and can be attended in any order (e.g., participants can attend “Introduction to securing leadership support” before they attend “Introduction to sustainability governance”). The series takes place regularly throughout the year to allow partners to join sessions at times that work best for their program development and individual schedules. Reach out to your sustainability strategy manager if you have questions about which of these sessions would be the best fit for you or other representatives from your organization to attend.
