BIDMC wins Environmental Award
Posted 5/19/2010
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Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center has been awarded a 2010 Practice Greenhealth Partner for Change Award. The award, given at the CleanMed conference in Baltimore, honors facilities that have made significant and sustainable progress toward reducing waste, preventing pollution, and eliminating mercury. Recipients of this award reduce, reuse, and/or recycle at least 10 percent of their total waste, and have initiated comprehensive waste minimization and pollution prevention programs.
BIDMC was honored with the Partner for Change Award for sustainability initiatives throughout the hospital including aggressive waste reduction and conservation goals, green purchasing efforts, hazardous waste recycling and an assessment that will lead to the hospital becoming mercury free.
Some of the hospital's most successful efforts to reduce waste include an exam table reupholstering project that will divert 20.6 tons from land fills and save the the hospital $126,000. BIDMC also created a formal equipment and supplies donations program. Over 27 tons were donated this year, diverting the weight from landfills and providing useful medical equipment and furniture to local schools and non-profits as well as hospitals in other countries. The hospital put several successful recycling programs in place this year as well with a stand out being the OR program, which was a grassroots initiative led by a team of nurses. The team wanted to include plastic as well as cardboard recycling and this has sped up the hospital's plan to move to single stream recycling in the coming months.
Congratulations to all the efforts that helped make BIDMC eligible for this prestigious award!
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