By Jenna Hughes
How healthcare leaders play a pivotal role in driving sustainable change within healthcare.
Editor’s note: The following is part two of a three-part series where Repertoire Magazine examines how the med/surg industry is working toward a future of more sustainable healthcare practices.
In healthcare, sustainability refers to the implementation of cost-efficient, environmentally friendly practices that support healthy and resilient communities, according to the American Hospital Association’s Sustainability Roadmap for Healthcare.
As a crucial part of the effort to go green, leaders at the helm of hospitals, health systems and medical device manufacturing must recognize the integral role their organizations play in guiding the health sector toward a sustainable future.
“Integrating environmental responsibility into the existing organizational structure of a hospital or health system is critical to achieving measurable results,” said Gwyneth Jones, Senior Director at Practice Greenhealth.
Healthcare leaders not only have the capacity to set sustainable goals for their organization – such as reducing energy consumption, waste generation and greenhouse gas emissions – but they can also embolden their teams to explore and implement environmentally friendly solutions across their organization.
“Setting the direction and leading is critical to demonstrate both commitment and aspiration to improving our environment,” said Christian Hutter, Associate Director, Sustainability and Packaging at B. Braun Medical Inc. “Viewing product performance wholistically, including impact on our environment such as waste generation and taking a life cycle approach to evaluating purchasing decisions are key areas of opportunity to lead.”
Environmental sustainability ultimately provides organizations with near-and long-term financial savings, improves patient care and increases workforce engagement. Health system leadership must therefore encourage the integration of sustainability practices within an organization’s strategic plan – woven through capital decisions, procurement policy and clinical operations.
“Strong leadership in sustainability means creating executive level councils with real decision-making authority that set goals and review progress the same way they review financial performance, supported by front-line teams that are given clear objectives and support in achieving them,” said Jones. “And it means accountability. Health systems have started tying executive compensation to meeting specific targets, like how much pollution they cut or how much waste they reduce.”
The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, a globally-accepted reporting standard, keeps organizations accountable for their emissions by defining three categories:
- Scope 1, which covers direct emissions from a facility’s own operations.
- Scope 2, which comes from the energy a facility purchases.
- Scope 3, which covers emissions across supply chains and investments.
Health systems like Hackensack Meridian Health, for example, take ownership of their environmental impact by tying executive compensation directly to reducing their Scope 1 and 2 emissions – the pollution produced by their own buildings and energy use.
Many health systems have now begun explicitly referring to the reduction of emissions and other environmental concerns as the number one threat to global public health in their organizational strategies; which cascade into their organizational goals and metrics.
“When leadership frames environmental issues as crucial to success, the rest of the organization takes notice,” said Jones. “The waste and pollution problems don’t get solved by the sustainability team alone. They get solved when every department head knows it’s part of their job, too. Also, if leaders are aware, it trickles down to the rest of the staff and becomes a part of the workplace culture. Once hospital executives understand what is possible, and that it can reduce costs while improving care, these programs really take off.”
Key Takeaways
- When it comes to sustainability, leadership has the power to guide an organizational culture that encourages environmentally friendly solutions.
- Hospital leaders must navigate a path forward to ensure sustainability is a top priority.
- If leaders champion sustainability initiatives, they in turn foster long-term health savings and improved patient outcomes.
- Sustainability efforts are most effective when they move beyond standalone initiatives and become embedded into everyday decision-making, including procurement, capital planning, clinical operations and accountability measures.