Why should anyone, especially hospitals, care about our environment? Because it makes sense... it saves hospitals money, provides a superior image and hospitals contribute enormously to the health and well-being of not only our environment but its inhabitants.

1. Greening Your Hospital
5 Ways to Go for the Green
Plant the Seed
Pull the Weeds
Water
Give It Love
Put it in Light and Watch It Grow

2. Greening Your Hospital
Why go green?
• Environmental Impact
Hospitals generate 6,600 tons of waste per day, and about 80
percent of that is nonhazardous waste.
• Financial
Kaiser Permanente in Modesto, California, is considered to be one
of the "greenest" hospitals in the country. The hospital saved
$500,000 by using green building materials
• Positive PR

3. Greening Your Hospital
How to go about “greening”
your hospital.

4. Greening Your Hospital
Plant the Seed
• Obtain support from senior and upper level
management
• Obtain support from middle management,
support staff and physicians
• Form a Green Team

5. Greening Your Hospital
Plant the Seed: Senior and Upper Level Management
One thing successful green initiatives have in common is leadership
and support from senior level management.
• Senior and upper level management backing will motivate lower
management and support staff to follow suit
• Management will put into place the guidelines and initiatives needed
for support staff to follow through

6. Greening Your Hospital
Plant the Seed: Lower-level Management, Support Staff and Physicians
Without the support of hospital employees, it is impossible to green a
hospital because every little bit counts.
• Advocate small steps – less waste at meals, e-mail vs. printed
paper, turn off lights when not in use
• Set employees up for success – provide paper recycle bins and
other useful tools
• Listen to concerns and implement ideas
• Give plenty of praise and reward

7. Greening Your Hospital
Plant the Seed: Operation Green Team
• Identify those who are passionate about greening the hospital and
form a Champions Green Team with these individuals. Champions
should consist of employees spanning the scope of all levels and
functions within the organization. Hold a monthly meeting to
discuss and implement ideas and procedures.
• Educate and engage your Green Team – give them the tools to in
turn educate and engage their peers

8. Greening Your Hospital
Pull the Weeds
Develop Standards
• Coordinate with all levels of management and
the Green Team
• Enforce accountability
• Make routine evaluations

9. Greening Your Hospital
Pull the Weeds: Coordinate
Make sure everyone is on the same page
• Hire a firm to assist your hospital in its greening efforts or conduct
extensive research
• Form a solid marketing plan that includes a framework calendar
• Create a sustainability manager position to direct programs
• Implement training programs to all employees

10. Greening Your Hospital
Pull the Weeds: Accountability
Hold management and employees accountable to the practices and
standards put in place
• Once the practice and standards are put into place, they must be
followed – even when faced with issues of cost, time constraints or
pressures from departments
• Use your department as a role model
• Use positive reinforcement to motivate

11. Greening Your Hospital
Pull the Weeds: Evaluation
Evaluate on a regular basis to not only gather positive feedback but
also improve standards and practices
• Some implementations will be easy to measure – such as those that
save the hospital money – and can be done more frequently
• Be sure to consider evaluating those that aren’t measured in dollars
• Compile your findings into a tangible piece for all employees; the
more results they see they more they will be apt to work toward the
goal

12. Greening Your Hospital
Water
• Make “sustainability” a part of your hospital’s
image
• Mission and Vision

13. Greening Your Hospital
Water: Image
• Consider your community when working to develop a greening plan
and encourage the community to develop their own greening
movement
• Make your intentions known to the community – this will also help
hold management accountable
• Use your greening efforts as a positive illustration of the hospital

14. Greening Your Hospital
Water: Mission and Vision
• Make your environment mission part of your strategic planning
process
• Apply positive verbiage about the greening efforts into internal and
external tactics

15. Greening Your Hospital
Give It Love
• Take Small Steps
• Establish a Green Building Policy

16. Greening Your Hospital
Give It Love: Take Small Steps
• Fully understand that a tree doesn’t grow up overnight and neither does
“greening” a hospital
• Be patient with management and employees – supply them with the
information and tools they will need to see these changes in a positive light
• Reinforce positive changes – even small ones
• Expand on your greening project each year – you don’t have to become
fully green even in the first year – work within your budget and weigh the
benefits and risks carefully
• Always put patient care first – if you are not comfortable with a product or
procedure, find one that you are comfortable with that also fits into your
hospitals greening efforts

17. Greening Your Hospital
Give It Love: Initiate a Green Building Policy
• It is in the hospital’s best interest to put policies into place that
ensure all construction and renovation projects meet sustainability
standards.
• Consider the cost difference in meeting sustainability standards at
the point of building or the cost of renovation

18. Greening Your Hospital
Put it in Light and Let it Grow
Hospital – Heal Thyself!
• Celebrate your accomplishments! They not only can save hospitals
millions of dollars but will make this world a healthier place to live in!
• By setting up a environmental management program you can turn
ideas into action and involve your employees on a whole new level
• Fact: The EPA identified medical waste incineration as the largest
source of dioxin, considered to be the most potent human
carcinogen manufactured

19. Greening Your Hospital
Examples of how hospitals are saving money by greening
STRATEGY SAVINGS
Permeable pavement in parking lot $290,000+
PG&E utility rebate $100,000+
Solar-powered construction lighting $75,000
(now used on walkways)
HDPE piping for exterior conduit $40,000
Photovoltaic mechanical screen $40,000
Cool roof $11,000
TOTAL SAVINGS $591,000

20. Greening Your Hospital
How does your hospital’s waste measure up?
*Based on composition of waste in nine Los Angeles City hospitals (1990)
Percent Solid Waste Composition (By Weight) In Hospitals*

21. Greening Your Hospital
Further information:
http://www.ciwmb.ca.gov/bizWaste/FactSheets/Hospital.htm
http://www.esmagazine.com/CDA/Articles/Web_Exclusive/BNP_GUID_9-5-2
http://www.noharm.org/goingGreen