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Six Maryland Hospitals have received awards from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for their environmental leadership and commitment to pollution prevention efforts.
The Trailblazer Award recognizes hospitals across EPA Region 3 (Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia) that have served as models for other hospitals in moving their facilities toward sustainable practices.
“These hospitals are successfully demonstrating leadership and innovation in reducing their environmental footprint,” said Virginia Thompson, sustainable healthcare sector manager for the mid-Atlantic region of EPA. “They have undertaken a challenging task and have produced measurable results in many cases, demonstrating what can be accomplished when hospitals take advantage both of senior executive support and grounds-up initiative from across the hospitals’ many departments.”
The awards were announced November 6 during the Environmental Excellence in Health Care Conference at the University of Maryland School of Nursing.
The winning hospitals conducted a wide variety of activities over the past year. The winners were:
Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, which implemented performance contracting, resulting in energy and water conservation, and publicized the program both internally and externally.
Franklin Square Hospital Center in White Marsh, which developed holistic, sustainable policies that will serve as a foundation for the entire MedStar Healthcare System.
Baltimore-based LifeBridge Health, which adopted a corporate-wide set of waste management policies, instituted environmentally preferable purchasing practices, and implemented a food waste reduction and composting program.
Montgomery General Hospital in Olney, which has reclaimed wetlands to reduce stormwater runoff, and which has a hospital representative serving on the county solid waste advisory committee.
The University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, which established a university farmers’ market and is reducing greenhouse gases by providing opportunities for patients, staff, and the community to purchase locally grown food.
The VA Maryland Health Care System in Baltimore and Perry Point, which has an environmental management system and is using it to guide environmentally preferable purchasing decisions, reduce energy and water use, purchase local foods, and develop written procedures for minimizing the purchase and use of hazardous chemicals.
During the conference, EPA also honored Maryland Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (MD H2E), which has successfully engaged hospitals across Maryland to move toward more sustainability and reduce their environmental footprint. The Maryland Department of the Environment has supported MD H2E with grants for mercury and PVC audits at seven hospitals and is currently partnering with the group to fund energy audits at two Maryland hospitals.
For more information, go to Maryland Hospitals for a Healthy Environment and EPA Region 3 Sustainable Healthcare.
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