Healthcare Design Magazine
June 20, 2012
by Janet Brown, EDAC, Contributing Editor
Josh Karliner, international coordinator for Health Care Without Harm (HCWH), shared the organization’s perspective on healthcare sustainability activities worldwide. Facilities across the world have varying levels of sustainability engagement, from being nonexistent to leading the way. One hospital can literally throw garbage out the back door and less than a mile down the road could be a high-end, world-class facility with the latest in technology and systems.
Approaches to sustainable design and operations in international settings can benefit from work being done in the United States, but they may also teach us new strategies, as I shared in a recent blog post for Practice Greenhealth titled “Poco a Poco.” We can look to our international partners for their leadership in energy and water conservation, use of safer materials in both building materials and in medical supplies, and their material/waste management.
With the engagement both in the United States and internationally, next steps could include increased communication, information-sharing, and collaboration —including at CleanMed Europe to be held September 26-28, 2012, in Malmo, Sweden…