Health care facilities are some of the largest contributors to pollution in the areas of waste, energy, toxics, and water. Due to the vast number of facilities and cumulative impacts their environmental footprint is large.
The audience attending the Greening of Hospitals Workshop was fascinated to learn about the cost saving solutions for creating a healthy environment that were presented by guest speakers Wendi Shafir, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Pollution Prevention Coordinator and Jack McGurk, President of Systems Improvement Initiators, Inc. The workshop was sponsored by the Health Workforce Initiative and Cottage Health System and held at Santa Barbara City College.
Sponsoring this workshop generated the opportunity to explore what local health care facilities were doing to green their hospitals. All in attendance were quite surprised by the innovative programs they had instituted and invited them to speak at the workshop.
Dennis Daniel, Director of Plant Operations for Marian Medical Center in Santa Maria, CA discussed his idea that the landfill located near the hospital may be able to generate energy for the hospital. He not only had the idea but made it a reality. The methane gas from the landfill is piped a couple of miles to Marian Hospital's Co-gen plant and converted to electrical energy . Today this method powers approximately 95% of the hospital's electrical needs and saves them about $150,000-$200,000 dollars a year in energy costs.
Jo Vargas from Cottage Health System explained their Healthy Food Program, where the hospital nutrition program uses fresh produce from local farmers and also has a farmers market at the hospital during the week. This program idea was originated by an employee Ruben Cosio, Director of Hospitality Services.
Both these hospitals have other innovative green programs and a commitment to making their facilities a healthy environment for their patients and staff. For more information on Cottage Health System's other green programs go to http://www.cottagehealthsystem.org/tabid/1530/Default.aspx.
It makes sense for the people who dedicate their lives providing health care to patients to want to provide a healthy environment for their patients, themselves and the community.
The PowerPoint presentations from Wendi Shafir and Jack McGurk can be found on the HWI website under Presentations. If you would like more information on setting up a Greening of Hospitals Workshop, contact Patricia Duffy - Pmduffy@sbcc.edu or (805) 892-3673.
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