Bellin Health focuses on serving its communities in the present while keeping a vigilant eye on the future. To maintain our focus on sustainability and environmentally friendly initiatives, we incorporate the best practices of other organizations and identify opportunities unique to our health system.
Our commitment to the environment's health is crucial in ensuring a sustainable future for the next generation. By prioritizing environmental conservation and adopting eco-friendly practices, we can mitigate the negative impacts of human activities on the planet. In this outline, we will explore various aspects of our commitment to the health of the environment and the steps we can take to protect and preserve it.
Environmental Initiatives
We collaborate to develop new ideas to make our healthcare facilities more environmentally friendly and sustainable. The team has identified and implemented several significant initiatives, including:
Energy Saving Light Bulbs
Bellin Health has reduced the average wattage of its light bulbs to save on energy. All light bulbs used within the health system are processed with a recycler.
Healthy Dining Options
It's essential to protect our body’s sustainability. For that reason, we have implemented a healthy dining program. This program offers healthy food options through dining services for patients and employees within the health system.
Mercury Elimination
Harmful mercury, often present in thermometers and other medical equipment, is almost non-existent within the health system’s facilities.
Pharmaceutical Waste Program
We implement an internal system to safely dispose of prescription drugs, preventing harmful drugs from entering the water system.
Reducing Total Waste
We are eliminating and reducing the use of non-biodegradable materials such as Styrofoam and increasing recycling by 33 percent.
Recycled Batteries
Batteries need to be appropriately disposed of. We have initiated a disposal program encouraging people to bring their batteries to the drop-off locations.
Surgical Reprocessing
Our facilities use safe and efficient practices to ensure that surgical equipment is used to its total capacity, offering greater efficiency and reducing overall waste.
Water Saving Mops
Bellin Health utilizes EPA-recommended microfiber mops throughout the health system, requiring less water and cleaning than traditional mops to wash the same surfaces.
Environmental Commitment Statement
As a healthcare system, Bellin Health practices good stewardship of the resources entrusted to it. We strive to make healthy environments for the people we serve and our employees. Recognizing the critical linkages between the environment and public health, we desire to limit adverse environmental impacts from our healthcare facilities' design, construction and operation.
We consider the life cycle impacts on facilities generated through sustainable design and construction standards, selection of materials, equipment and maintenance practices. We also utilize the Green Guide for Health Care (GGHC) as a directive for sustainable design, construction and building operation projects.
At our facilities, we incorporate, where feasible, natural and renewable energy flows. Additionally, we collaborate with architects, engineers and contractors to specify commercially available, cost-competitive materials, products, technologies and processes, where appropriate, that positively impact or limit any negative impact on environmental quality and human health.
We aim to integrate sustainable design, operation and maintenance practices in building, rebuilding and retrofitting facilities to meet regulatory and community health needs.
The following are some of the benefits of sustainable design that we seek to achieve by adhering to this procedure:
- Building occupants: People who live and work in facilities designed and constructed with sustainable materials and methods have less illness, are more productive and report higher satisfaction with their indoor environments.
- Environmental: Clean air, water and resource conservation are favorable ecological results of sustainable design and development.
- Financial: Decreased energy costs, increased valuation, improved durability and increased productivity are all potential benefits of sustainable building design.