Education & Communication

FY17 Environmental Stewardship Program Report

Healthcare Without Waste

Leadership

Integrating sustainability into organizational strategy
Education & Communication

Creating awareness; improving adoption and practices and sharing success stories
Energy

Helping hospitals reduce costs and protect scarce resources
Water

Decreasing the strain on municipal water supplies and reducing energy needed to treat and deliver water
Green Buildings / Operations & Maintenance / Transportation

Green construction, operations and maintenance of healthcare facilities; vehicles; landscaping; and site water management
Safer Chemicals

Reducing exposure to chemicals in order to “first do no harm”
Food Systems

Increasing health and safety in food service while decreasing waste and use of non-therapeutic antibiotics in meat and poultry products
Environmentally Preferred Purchasing

Purchasing products that are durable, efficient and cost-effective, while reducing the hospital’s environmental impact
Waste Management & Reduction

Reducing waste while increasing recycling and donations, safely

Making Every Day Earth Day

Earth Day, celebrated annually in April, provides a time to reflect on the importance of conserving our natural resources. Ministries across Ascension also find innovative ways to integrate care for the earth every day of the year. The list below highlights several ways Ascension brings about social, fiscal and environmental benefits in the communities it serves through ongoing environmental stewardship efforts.

Making Every Day Earth Day

The Borgess Health Green Team gave away 300 tree seedlings, hosted six community vendors, had a drawing for five free bus passes and recruited for the Green Team during its annual Earth Day Fair in April 2017.

Associates from the Medxcel Facilities Management (Medxcel FM) Landscaping Team, Medxcel FM corporate office and St. Vincent Seton Cove Spirituality Center, part of Ascension Indiana, partnered for a volunteer landscaping exercise to celebrate Earth Day.
Providence-Providence Park Hospital, Novi, and Providence-Providence Park Hospital, Southfield, both part of Ascension Michigan, hosted a range of activities including a shredding event for associates to dispose of confidential documents; a waste management informational table in the café; placing prayer cards on patient trays; donating microfiber cleaning cloths to associates; and planning special menu items in the café.
Ascension Chicago ministries, to include Alexian Brothers Medical Center, St. Alexius Medical Center and Alexian Brothers Behavioral Health Hospital, conducted a Spring Cleaning Challenge to clean out office areas and storage rooms, including an office supply swap.
St. Mary’s Healthcare in Amsterdam, New York, held a Lunch & Learn and donated microfiber cleaning cloths to associates.
Associates at St. John Medical Center, part of Ascension Tulsa, helped plant trees at the Regional Medical Lab in collaboration with Tulsa’s Up With Trees organization.

Farm-to-Table presentation at The Resource Group, St. Louis

Earth Day activities at Genesys Regional Medical Center, Grand Blanc, Michigan

Associates from Medxcel volunteered at St. Vincent Seton Cove Spirituality Center

Promoting Nutritious and Sustainable Meals

Cafeterias across Ascension participated in Food Day last year, promoting recipes that featured vegetables as the focus rather than meat. Ascension hospitals sourced vegetarian menu choices and included recipe cards, food samples and signage to communicate the benefits of incorporating local, sustainable produce into nutritious meals. By serving increased portions of vegetables and grains, Ascension hospitals are reducing the large environmental footprint of meat production.

No-Waste Holiday Lunch

Our Lady of Lourdes Memorial Hospital in Binghamton, New York hosts a no-waste holiday lunch for associates every December, which serves as both a celebration and an educational event. Last year, through careful menu and supply planning as well as waste management during the event, 688 pounds of waste were recycled, 286 pounds were composted and only 25 pounds were disposed of as trash.

Ascension Presents at Annual Healthcare Sustainability Conference

Ascension was selected to provide two presentations at the Practice Greenhealth CleanMed conference in May 2017, where clinicians, administrators, researchers and building designers came together to learn how hospitals can become more environmentally sustainable.