Sustainable Initiatives
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| Partners hospitals recycle the "blue wrap" material used in operating rooms, as seen above. |
Partners HealthCare has made sustainability a top organizational priority. The Health Care sector utilizes energy at a far greater rate than many others. We recognize that this consumption is not sustainable, and are working to reduce our impact on the environment.
Through the creation of a master energy plan for all of the hospitals and facilities within the system, we have committed to reducing our overall energy consumption by 25% by 2013.
We are also a founding member of the Healthier Hospitals Initiative, a coalition of major health systems across the U.S. that have come together to improve sustainability and safety in health care. Locally, Dr. Gary Gottlieb, Partners' President and CEO, is the co-chair of the health care sector of Boston's Green Ribbon Commission, a group that brings together industry leaders to implement Boston's Climate Action Plan.
The sustainable initiatives taking place at Partners seek to improve health care delivery across three main areas:
- Patient and Employees (Patient and employee health and safety)
- Healthy Environment (Reducing our impact on the earth)
- Resources (Controlling health care costs by using resources more wisely)
Partners' Sustainable Initiatives
Learn about specific projects taking place at Partners, and how we implement them across the system.
Healthier Hospitals Initiative
Learn more about Partners involvement in the Healthier Hospitals Initiative.
John Messervy, Director of Capital and Facility Planning for Partners HealthCare, shares his thoughts about Partners' efforts to reduce our impact on the environment.
In the News
Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, now open, is Boston’s first building designed to weather climate change. The hospital, located in the Charlestown Navy Yard, was built a full foot higher than the previous location and includes artificial reefs to protect against high tides of severe storms. The hospital is expected to be a model of resiliency in terms of both climate change and patients.
Energy Star Recognition
Partners HealthCare has been recognized as a participant in Energy Star's 2012 Low Carbon IT Campaign. Energy Star is a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency program that supports businesses and individuals protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. In addition, the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) is a method for evaluating the effect of a product on the environment. It assesses lifecycle environmental standards and ranks products as gold, silver or bronze based on a set of environmental performance criteria. The Partners IS team has installed energy management software on 30,000 computers through fiscal year 2012 and 99 % of Partners desktop equipment is certified EPEAT Gold.
