Why go green?

Smart Savings / Good Public Relations / Improved Staff Recruitment and Retention /
Be ahead rather than behind the pack.

There are several benefits worth considering. With the pace of change in sustainable healthcare you need to be active in this area for your patients, your staff, your stakeholders and your bottom line.

Strategic Consulting

We've helped several organizations assess where they are at and determine what they need to do — in the short and long term — to improve their environmental performance.

We can help:

• Set measurable and realistic green goals

• Create a plan that fits your organization

• Coordinate and communicate

It's important to know where you're at before you move forward. Then we'll lay out a plan of action for you to undertake, and help implement, if that's appropriate.

Some things we've done:

Staff Awareness Campaign

Example: Developed and implemented an awareness campaign for a large health region (17,000 employees), working with energy and government partners to increase staff environmental awareness and reduce energy use.Included taking a Traveling Informational Display to 16 facilities, writing several articles in internal newsletters, running a contest for energy ideas and attending community forums.
Goal: To educate staff on the economic, environmental and health care benefits of improved energy efficiency and the reduction of solid wastes and to encourage them to get involved in energy savings both at work and at home.
Outcome:  For a $15,000 investment, it is estimated that the campaign saved the organization over $250,000 in energy savings.

Publicity of Organizational Green Activities

Example 1: Assisted in the re-branding of Practice Greenhealth (formerly Hospitals for a Healthy Environment) by writing several trade articles about the organization and organizing media pickup around their annual awards ceremony.
Outcome: Practice Greenhealth was a central subject in several trade publications. Many award winners received significant media play.

Example 2: Wrote and distributed several media releases on green activities, including media releases on the purchase of green cars, on energy retrofits and on a LEED Gold award, to educate the public about an organization's environmental activities
Outcome:  The organization was highlighted in a Business in Vancouver Magazine Green Space article on public sector projects that inject sustainability into design.  Much local media pickup generated interest from the Ministry of Health as well as other health regions.

Example 3: Due to unexpected events, took on the media liaison work for CleanMed 2008 at the last minute. Created several news releases, connected with local and national media and handled trade media requests at the event.
Outcome: CleanMed 2008 was written up in several trade publications.

Example 4: Prepared a presentation on all Green and Energy projects at Interior Health (BC, Canada) for presentation to the Regional Hospital Districts - who provide up to 40% of the funding for healthcare capital projects.

Environmental Surveys

Example 1: Carried out an Environmental Staff Survey to gauge the support of staff to include environmental effects as part of the organization's decision-making process and use the information to determine the "next steps" in Green Healthcare work. 
Outcome:  Recycled paper and mandatory two-sided printing were introduced, as the use of paper was a hot issue for staff.  More staff became involved in green efforts.

Example 2: Surveyed several North American facilities to gauge success of an organization's awards campaign. 
Outcome:  Over 50% of the participants provided feedback that assisted the organization in making changes necessary to support their membership.

Departmental/Committee Work on Green Related Issues

Worked with individual departments or committees on Green related issues.

Example 1:  Worked with Plant Maintenance, Information Technology and facilities management to create an education campaign to encourage staff to reduce their energy use.
Outcome:  Staff felt able to contribute to energy savings and energy bills were tracked - reductions varied from 2 to 5 percent.

Example 2:  Staff were unhappy about leaving their computers on all night, citing energy waste.  IMIT wanted them on to do overnight upgrades.
Outcome:  Worked with IMIT to resolve this. Created an education campaign that staff could turn off their monitors (70% of energy use) while leaving their towers on.

Example 3:  Worked with several departments to research and write the award application for a North American environmental award.
Outcome:  Organization received a H2E (now Practice Greenhealth) 2007 Champions for Change Award.

Community Mercury Thermometer Replacement Program

Organized and ran a Community Mercury Thermometer Replacement Program throughout a large healthcare region in over 40 communities.  Worked with Public Health, Materials Management (Purchasing) and a large thermometer supplier (BD). Used paid advertising and general interest stories to reach the public.
Goal: To collect and properly dispose of the mercury in these communities.
Outcome:  Program was a huge success, initially oversubscribed.  Successful in getting more supply.  Collected over 3 kilograms of mercury, including over 4,500 fever thermometers providing an outlet for the proper disposal of mercury.