Healthcare sustainability – incorporating environmentally friendly practices into healthcare delivery –appeals to health professionals and institutions for various reasons: It safeguards the environment, reduces carbon footprint, saves money, demonstrates leadership in our communities and provides a platform for educating patients, staff and visitors.
At Stony Brook Medicine, our Healthcare Sustainability Committee is focused on sustainability efforts and increasing stakeholder engagement to foster a healthier environment for our patients, staff and faculty. The Committee manages several subcommittees, each with its own initiative which includes less waste, safer chemicals, greening the OR, healthy foods, environmentally preferable purchasing, green building, and energy/water conservation.
The results of these efforts have been recognized! I am proud to announce Stony Brook University Hospital (SBUH) is the recipient of the 2020 Top 25 Environmental Excellence Award, the nation’s premier recognition program for environmental performance in the healthcare sector.
This award is Practice Greenhealth’s highest honor for hospitals; it recognizes healthcare facilities and health systems for their commitment to environmental stewardship and their sustainability achievements. Based on a rigorous scoring system, the award honors success in a range of sustainability programs. Initiatives that contributed to SBUH’s award include:
- Our onsite rooftop vegetable garden providing fresh produce to our patients
- Removing Styrofoam from food service and replacing with eco-friendly materials
- Implementing a composting program;
- Increasing our Pharmacy recycling of plastics totaling 20 pounds per week
- Developing a Clean Energy Master Plan
- Creation of a green revolving fund and total recycling of 942.98 tons.
In addition, we received a Circles of Excellence Award for the work performed by the safer chemicals subcommittee. The Circles of Excellence award recognizes up to 10 of the highest performing hospitals for each individual category of environmental performance. Our sustainability program initiatives include switching to purchasing non- polyvinyl chloride (PVC), also called vinyl, and diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP) free IV bags and tubing from our IV supplier. PVC is considered environmentally unsafe by many public health organizations because it contributes to dioxin formation during manufacture and incineration, and the FDA issued a DEHP warning in 2002, recommending that hospitals switch to alternatives. The safer chemicals subcommittee also revised our Environmental Sustainability Profile located in our New Product Request Application to include all of the Chemicals of Concern.
Finally, we received the Greening the OR Recognition Award, which honors facilities that have made substantial progress in reducing the impact of the surgical environment, for the third year in a row.
These recognitions are the culmination of a three-year journey and a direct result of the many ways we embrace the connection between human health and the environment. Congratulations to our Healthcare Sustainability Committee members for the vision, innovation, and initiative they have demonstrated through their environmental leadership and stewardship. This recognition is a testament to the work that we do all year round to develop and adhere to the sustainability strategic plan and the successful initiatives that create a healthier environment of care for our staff, visitors and patients.
As healthcare providers, we all share an essential responsibility to care for our communities and each other. Environmental sustainability works hand in hand with our mission to provide quality healthcare and build healthier communities. The Practice Greenhealth recognition awards are truly a reflection of the dedication, passion and support we have across the organization. They illustrate that sustainability is entrenched in our culture and that we have made a strong connection between health, well-being and our environment.
Congratulations to all!
Carol
Congratulations Carol and committee members! This is great news. So pleased to hear of Stony Brooks accomplishments and well deserved recognition in Sustainability and the Circle of Excellence Awards . Kudos to all!