Sustainability is at the heart of our healing mission, and we’re proud to share that, as a result of our hard work, the Wexner Medical Center has been awarded the Environmental Excellence Award from Practice Greenhealth, the nation’s leading organization dedicated to environmental sustainability in health care.
Despite the unprecedented times during the last year and a half, the medical center successfully reported achievement across 11 different areas of sustainability through the annual Environmental Excellence Awards program. It highlighted our community involvement, investments in resilience and how we address racial equity and health disparities.
During the award review period of fiscal year 2020, the medical center’s sustainability efforts resulted in $3 million in cost avoidance, a 2% decrease in energy, and increased landfill diversion to 33%. The Sustainability Council at the medical center takes a holistic approach to sustainability that looks at its environmental, societal, and economic impact. This drives the work to focus on increasing recycling efforts or improving energy efficiency and to offer programs such as donating food to those in need in our community – a win-win, because it also is another way to divert the waste.
In addition to hosting virtual educational opportunities, the medical center’s employee-led Green Team offered a “take back” day on Earth Day that provided the opportunity for faculty and staff to confidentially shred more than 3,250 pounds of documents in addition to recycling 3 cubic yards of electronics, 70 pairs of shoes, and 50 pounds of batteries.