Hospital Sustainability is an upcoming trend that is taking on more and more steam. The overall goal is to integrate a sustainability program into the facility’s operations. This would ideally develop committed teams, creative solutions, solid strategies, and measurable goals along the way.
The first thing to consider is why would you incorporate a sustainability program into your hospital’s support service division. The easy answer is it’s the right thing to do and who else would focus on something like this??!! The real answer is it provides the hospital with an increased focus on being “green” and becoming more environmentally friendly. To be truly sustainable, however, initiatives must stand the test of time by being fiscally sound while also helping the community and the environment. Hospitals and care systems that pursue sustainability initiatives find benefits in multiple areas. Their efforts contribute to a healthier environment, improve the organization’s public perception and can help their local communities. Environmental sustainability is also good business, as it helps lower operational costs and allows hospitals to direct more resources to patient care.
So, you have made the effort to form a team, now what do you do to make this successful. The first is to make the commitment. To be successful, you have to incorporate a “green” mindset with all decisions in your departments. Next, create a structure for supporting environmental sustainability. Not adding additional resources but focusing on an ability for yourself and your team to incorporate sustainability into your operations. Third, set goals for the sustainability committee that measure, report, and evaluate. These could be as simple as a task list the group reviews. Successful committees would incorporate; cost, environmental outcomes, and overall risk into their measurements. And finally, celebrate and share success. When you do something as a committee be sure to incorporate the celebration into your group. Sustainability is hard, commending your group for a job well done is necessary when you reach a goal.