Not to toot our own horn (unless it’s noise pollution-friendly), but the latest edition Healthscape by the Ontario Hospital Association includes a horn-tooting article all about us.
Here’s an excerpt of “Supporting Patient Care Through a Sustainable Environment – A Green UHN“.
When most people think of places that heal, that do good, the image of a hospital comes to mind … as it should. Certainly, health care professionals vow to do no harm. But within this valiant task of healing people, we consume a lot of resources from the planet; the energy to run an MRI, the water to wash hands between patients, and the mounds of packaging to keep materials sterile. This strain on resources can affect the environment which in turn affects people’s health, leading to this ironic twist: can healthcare create health problems?
The very definition of sustainability (according to the iisd) is to “Meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”. Enter the Energy & Environment department of the UHN, which began fifteen years ago with Ed Rubinstein, a one-man-band. He collaborated with different areas to see how we can all reduce the negative impact we have on the environment that come from our daily tasks.
Visit Healthscape to read the full enchilada.
Lisa
Talkin' Trash With UHN 