Hospital Recognized for the 11th Straight Year
Vermont Business Magazine The University of Vermont Medical Center has been honored as one of 25 hospitals to receive the Environmental Excellence award by Practice Greenhealth, a leading national advocate for sustainable practices in health care.
The Top 25 Environmental Excellence Award is Practice Greenhealth’s highest honor for hospitals and recognizes efforts to address links between the environment and human health, use data to demonstrate successes, and show leadership in their local communities and across the health care sector.
For the 2020 award, Project Greenhealth highlighted UVM Medical Center’s efforts to mitigate the impact of constructing the new Miller Building. Construction debris can comprise up to 36 percent of overall landfill waste, which is a source of up to 18 percent of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. In 2019, the UVM Medical Center opened a new inpatient building where 100 percent of construction and demolition debris was recycled, turning what many consider trash into reusable materials. Through strategic waste diversion the hospital was able to cut our carbon and waste footprint even before the new building opened its doors.
“In a shifting health care landscape, a focus on sustainability can help build resilience while better protecting the health of patients and the community,” said Gary Cohen, Practice Greenhealth founder. “The University of Vermont Medical Center demonstrates the kind of leadership, innovation, and performance that can drive the entire health sector toward more environmentally responsible practices.”
UVM Medical Center’s main campus also received Greening the OR Recognition and the award for Circles of Excellence for Food, Waste and Green Buildings. The Fanny Allen Campus in Colchester received The Emerald Award and Circle of Excellence Recognition for Food.
The Greening the OR Recognition Award recognizes the top 20 percent of the highest-scoring applicants for the Greening the OR category. Winners must have made substantial progress in reducing the impact of the surgical environment, have a clinical champion supporting the work, and also meet metric and quality score thresholds.
The Circles of Excellence honor recognizes up to 10 of the highest performing hospitals for each individual category of environmental performance, including Leadership, Waste, Chemicals, Greening the OR, Food, Environmentally Preferable Purchasing, Energy, Water, Climate, Green Building.
The Greenhealth Emerald Award recognizes the top 20 percent of the highest-scoring applicants that are setting the standard in reducing waste, addressing chemicals of concern, tackling sustainable procurement and are achieving significant successes in a range of other programmatic areas. Winning hospitals have demonstrated a strong commitment to sustainability and shown leadership in the local community and in the health care sector.
The UVM Medical Center has been recognized by Practice Greenhealth for 11 straight years for its commitment to environmentally responsible practices. UVM Medical Center has sought to engage its employees in making personal commitments to help mitigate climate change.
“We are proud of our reputation for environmental excellence and take seriously our responsibility to be good stewards of the environment. Our employees are committed to a culture of excellence and focused on implementing best practices in the health care industry and improving the environment and reducing our impact,” said Dawn LeBaron, vice president of Hospital Services. “We are honored to be recognized by Practice Greenhealth for these ongoing efforts.”
To learn more, visit the Environmental Leadership section of the UVM Medical Center website. It includes information on programs devoted to serving healthy food, reducing waste, and limiting the use of chemicals.
About Practice Greenhealth
Practice Greenhealth is the source for environmental solutions for the healthcare sector and lends support to create better, safer, greener workplaces and communities. Practice Greenhealth is a nonprofit membership organization founded on the principles of positive environmental stewardship and best practices by organizations in the healthcare community. Visit https://practicegreenhealth.org for more information.
About the University of Vermont Medical Center
The University of Vermont Medical Center is a 499-bed tertiary care regional referral center providing advanced care to approximately 1 million residents in Vermont and northern New York.
Source: BURLINGTON, VT – The University of Vermont Medical Center 9.9.2020