The nonprofit organization, dedicated to promoting sustainable healthcare, collected data from 322 hospitals across the country to discover current environmental sustainability trends in healthcare.
Here is a breakdown of the report‘s main findings.
Climate and Energy:
- U.S. Hospitals emit about 8 percent of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the report.
- The number of facilities that have written a plan to address climate change mitigation has almost doubled in the last three years.
- More hospitals are turning to renewable energy, as well. The percentage of facilities that generate or purchase renewable energy increased by 81 percent in the last three years.
Waste:
- U.S. hospitals create more than 4.67 million tons of pharmaceutical waste each year, according to Practice Greenhealth.
- The amount of facilities that have taken measures to reduce pharmaceutical waste jumped by 11 percent in the last two years.
- The surveyed hospitals achieved a 30 percent recycling rate, more than doubling the initial goal of 15 percent laid out by the Environmental Protection Agency.
- Hospitals recycled 121,556 tons of material this past year saving almost $23.7 million through recycling.
Safer Chemicals:
- The percentage of hospitals prioritizing furniture and medical furnishings free of halogenated flame retardants, formaldehyde, perfluorinated compounds and vinyl more than doubled in 2016 compared to the year prior.
- Seventy-eight percent of hospitals have chemical or purchasing policies identifying specific chemicals of concern to humans and the environment.
- Seventy-nine percent of hospitals purchase certified green cleaning chemicals and 30 percent have programs in place to purchase furniture or furnishings that avoid the harmful chemicals.
Water:
- Studies show global water supplies will only meet 60 percent of total demand by 2030, reports Practice Greenhealth. At present, hospitals in the U.S. use more than 7 percent of the country’s commercial water supply.
- The amount of facilities that benchmark water usage has doubled in the last three years.
- In the same time period, the number of hospitals with a written plan and well-defined goals to reduce water use has increased by 36 percent.
- Only 17 percent of hospitals reported any water reduction projects in 2015.
Healthy foods:
- The U.S. spends billions of dollars annually on healthcare costs for diet-related conditions like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
- Sixty-two percent of facilities have a policy to address unsustainable food practices.
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Seventy-two percent of hospitals indicated they purchased locally and/or food grown through more sustainable means.
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Fifty-four percent of hospitals reported some portion of hospitals’ meat or poultry was raised without the routine use of antibiotics.
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