Practice Greenhealth, which advocates for sustainable, environmentally friendly practices in the healthcare industry, and Johnson & Johnson, a sponsor of the CleanMed Conference and Exposition in Boston last week, conducted a poll targeting the 56 top U.S. and global health care professionals in attendance at the conference on their commitment to greening healthcare environments.
Among the survey respondents, 87 percent say their hospitals incorporate sustainability into both the decision-making process and hospital operations. 20 percent of respondents indicated their organization invested more than $1 million in sustainability initiatives in 2012, including the purchase of sustainable products, and 90 percent of those surveyed indicated their hospital increased investment in sustainability in 2012 versus the previous year.
Of the health care administrators who selected operational costs as one of their top three sustainability priorities, 37 percent named energy usage as the main concern, followed byproducts and supplies (28 percent) and waste disposal (22 percent). Hospitals also say decreasing waste (33 percent) and creating a greener, healthier environment for patients (22 percent) are other priorities of their sustainability strategies.
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