Greening initiatives take root

UPMC is “greening” the New Year with the first installment of a second $250,000 grant from The Heinz Endowments to develop extensive environmental initiatives and disease-prevention programs that expand on the health system’s commitment to environmental health, safety, and stewardship. UPMC also has committed $5 million to a green action fund to support systemwide waste reduction, energy efficiency, renewable resources, and conservation.

Under the direction of Allison Robinson, PhD, director, Environmental Initiatives, UPMC has been advancing a new model for environmentally safe practices that involves systemwide environmental policies, coordinated research initiatives, and environmentally friendly and sustainable operations. UPMC has established a system-level Green Team for goal setting, review, and measurement of greening initiatives in coordination with facility-based green teams. An organizational structure is in place that engages representatives of business units across the system. UPMC isn’t just buying, building, and greening operations, from supply chain to waste management. It’s linking all aspects of its medical mission to greening initiatives.

“Our systemwide initiatives have been drafted and pilot projects are in place or in process, such as paper reduction and recycling, surplus materials exchange, sustainable energy, and making all of our hospitals mercury-free,” says Dr. Robinson. “Across our scope of operations, UPMC is innovating and creating a model for disease prevention and reduction. This is the impact we can make for our patients and communities.”

UPMC has established a Community Advisory Committee and is deepening relationships with external organizations, such as Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E), Healthcare Without Harm, Pittsburgh Regional Clean Cities, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). UPMC is linking community food pantries interested in the health system’s food surplus and will head a senior leadership panel at the CleanMed 2008 conference. Collaborative projects with the University of Pittsburgh’s Mascaro Sustainability Institute include a project on sustainable ergonomic design for call and data centers.

UPMC’s Green Team will conduct a systemwide audit using an H2E tool to establish benchmarks to measure system change. In conjunction with the DOE, the health system is developing a first-of-its-kind workshop on energy efficiency in health care. UPMC also will co-sponsor a household hazardous materials workshop and community-based collections of hazardous household waste products this spring. Defining its medical mission in broad environmental terms, UPMC is expanding education and research in environmental links to disease. Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC, co-sponsor with The Heinz Endowments of the 2007 Women’s Health and the Environment conference, has developed prenatal classes and a tool kit concerning environmental exposures.

“We believe that through The Heinz Endowments grant, UPMC is building a profound model for health care that goes beyond greening its infrastructure and operational systems,” says Ellen Dorsey, PhD, environment program officer, The Heinz Endowments. “UPMC’s greening initiatives and innovative research provide the connective tissue linking environment to disease. This is pathbreaking and hugely significant in its impact.”

Systemwide initiatives and individual facility-based programs are too numerous to cover in detail in one news article. To offer a snapshot of these programs, much of this special eight-page issue of Extra! will be devoted to spotlighting specific greening initiatives that are in pilot stages or already part of the health system’s operations. Inside, you’ll find stories on UPMC’s efforts to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for one of the first environmentally sustainable pediatric hospitals; Food Services’ efforts to be more eco-friendly; equipment recycling efforts taking place through Global Links; and how the new print management initiative will reduce paper use.

Through the support of The Heinz Endowments and its own investments in sustainability, UPMC is taking a leadership role in modeling environmentally safe health care for better therapeutic results.

Source: UPMC Extra

UPMC has made great strides over the last several years in their systemwide efforts to conserve water and energy, reduce infectious and solid waste, and decrease the use of toxic chemicals. See below for major awards and progress made on this issue.

Major Awards

• 2006 & 2007: Hospitals for a Healthy Environment Making Medicine Mercury Free Award
  UPMC has eliminated virtually all mercury-containing equipment at UPMC Presbyterian, UPMC Shadyside, Hillman Cancer Center, and Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC. This distinction helped these facilities earn the Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) Making Medicine Mercury Free Award, the premier national recognition of environmental achievement in health care. H2E also awarded these hospitals 2007 H2E Partner Recognition.
• 2007: Children’s Environmental Health Excellence Award
  The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Children’s Health Protection granted the 2007 Children’s Environmental Health Excellence Award to Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC and Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC. Magee received the award in recognition of its education and outreach to health care professionals regarding environment and health. By educating leadership, staff, and physicians, Magee aims to inform all new mothers about having an environmentally safe home for their infants. Children’s pediatric environmental health curriculum for its pediatric residents was recognized for its emphasis on training residents to focus on environmental medicine as a standard part of the care provided by the institution. (Click here for more information.)
• 2008: Partner Recognition Award
  
• 2008: Leader in Environmental Health Award
  The Center for Environmental Oncology at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute received the Leader in Environmental Health Award from the Pennsylvania Resources Council. The center has collaborated with the council in a joint initiative to create a middle school curriculum, student activities, and teaching materials that will convey the center’s environmental health messages.

Progress

• UPMC is purchasing renewable energy credits (RECs) that represent about 10% of electricity.
• Mercury has essentially been eliminated. Alcohol & xylene lab solvents are being recycled.
• Some paper, beverage, containers, batteries, and cardboard are being recycled.
• Saving 578,120 gallons of water & 4,505 gallons of disinfectant annually using microfiber mops to clean patient rooms at UPMC Presbyterian & Shadyside; Children’s Hospital is currently implementing their use.
• Children’s Hospital has conducted a pilot study with the goal of keeping nearly 22,000 sharps containers out of the landfill each year by converting to reusable sharps containers.
• Children’s Hospital signed the Health Care Without Harm Healthful Food Pledge; all UPMC hospitals are offering more healthful & local food choices & a virtual farmers’ market.
• Construction of new ‘green’ LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Children’s Hospital building (illustrated in drawing to the right).
• Children’s Community Pediatrics opened the first environmentally sustainable medical office in the region.
• Removing plastic dishware & utensils from hospital cafeterias & replacing with molded fiber & corn-based compostable products.
• Planning for major new green research facility in Shadyside & new green hospital in Monroeville.

UPMC has established a Corporate Environmental Steering Committee to advise systemwide greening teams, hired a corporate Director of Environmental Initiatives, & developed a corporate Environmental Policy Statement that includes a systemwide commitment to:

• Serve as leaders in the pursuit of environmental stewardship & health.
• Institute Environmentally Preferable Purchasing (EPP) & sustainable policies.
• Create a $5 million dollar allocation for "Green Action Loan Fund" to finance high performance design, operations, & maintenance projects that reduce UPMC's ecological footprint.

• The use of an integrated design approach as the standard for all new buildings
• Cleaning and operations of all facilities to follow LEED standards for new and existing buildings
• Adoption of a comprehensive corporate-wide recycling program (paper, cardboard, metal, plastic, and glass)
• Use of nontoxic paints, stains, finishes and adhesives for all retrofits and new construction by UPMC personnel and outside contractors
• Expanded nutrition and exercise programs that enhance the health of staff and patients
• A commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by purchasing clean energy (wind, solar)