Sustainability in healthcare; 3 key thoughts

With nearly everyone in healthcare — from C-suite executives to department managers, suppliers and vendors — concerned with financial goals and strengthening the bottom line, it can be challenging to engage a hospital in environmental activities that don't offer immediate financial gain, according to a "Greener Hospitals: Building Consensus for Health Care Sustainability" report co-sponsored by Johnson & Johnson and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania's Initiative for Global Environmental Leadership.

Here are three key strategies from the report on how hospitals can include sustainability efforts that may take longer to benefit the bottom line, or may only impact it indirectly.

1. When the financial benefit of an environmental project does not drop straight to the bottom line, avoid justifying the project's cost in terms of its sustainability benefits. According to John Frey, sustainability innovation technologist at Hewlett Packard, who spoke at the fall 2014 Wharton San Francisco conference, “Metrics that Matter; Messages that Motivate,” the challenge is to "tell the story in a way that is meaningful to someone who doesn't speak sustainability-ese, to translate our message into a relevant conversation with a customer."

2. Even when a sustainability effort can be shown to benefit the bottom line, often the benefit is simply not significant enough to warrant consideration, especially at larger institutions. The challenge, according to Eric Olson, senior vice president at Business for Social Responsibility, is for a project to "rise to the level of materiality that turns the head of a CFO."

3. Avoiding reputational risk can be a strong motivator. "I don't think people choose hospitals for their sustainability profile," observed Gary Cohen, president and co-founder of Health Care Without Harm, "but increasingly people expect hospitals to be environmentally responsible corporate citizens."

 

More articles on healthcare finance:

How the PPACA has impacted hospital reimbursement and revenue cycle

Moody's: PPACA challenge carries significant risk for nonprofit hospitals

Hospitals' contribution to the economy: $2.6T, 5.6M jobs

Copyright © 2024 Becker's Healthcare. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy. Cookie Policy. Linking and Reprinting Policy.

 

Featured Whitepapers

Featured Webinars