Achieving Sustainability Takes Commitment And Planning

Achieving environmental sustainability doesn’t happen by accident. In fact, just the opposite is true. It requires an ongoing commitment and plan.

Fortunately, Stony Brook Medicine has a strategic plan, and focused multi-disciplinary team with a strong organizational commitment to healthcare sustainability led by Jill Kavoukian, MPA, CHSP, Director of Healthcare Safety & Sustainability.

Under the 2020 plan, we developed a clean energy master plan, identified additional areas where reuse and recycling could be implemented. Our recycling department added two off-site locations to our recycling program over the year, and alkaline battery recycling increased by eight percent as a result.

Our Pharmacy Department, as part of our “Less Waste” initiative, eliminated the use of paper medication requests resulting in a reduction of paper usage of 660,000 sheets of paper or the equivalent of 132 cases of paper per year. Annual spending on paper decreased by $5,384.

Procurement now purchases only 100 percent recycled white copy paper, and our premium color paper copy is all certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), an organization that works to promote the practice of sustainable forestry worldwide. The hospital has switched to recycled stock for most colored paper as well.

In Food Service, we reduced meat purchases by 10 percent, increased local produce and product purchases by 15 percent, and increased purchases of sustainable food by 10 percent.

To combat climate change, we met our goal of reducing our energy use intensity by 20 percent compared to the baseline year of 2010. We implemented a Renewable Energy Master Plan, and we are in the process of investigating metrics for tracking our greenhouse gas emissions.

Those were significant achievements for 2020 – especially in the midst of a once-in-a-century pandemic!

Last year, we received the Top 25 Environmental Excellence Award, the nation’s premier recognition program for environmental performance in the healthcare sector. This award is Practice Greenhealth’s highest honor for hospitals, recognizing healthcare facilities and health systems for their commitment to environmental stewardship and their sustainability achievements.

Our work will continue apace in 2021. For a complete look at the 2021 Environmental Sustainability plan, visit www.stonybrookmedicine.edu/sustainability. Among our top goals for this year are to:

• Focus on house wide paper reduction by 10 percent.
• Use metrics to study the impact of the new medication distribution processes in the Hospital. Pavilion with regard to decreasing waste generation and, if successful, mirror in hospital towers.
• Create and implement a sustainable rooftop garden for Pediatrics in the new Hospital Pavilion.
• Create a new Clean Energy Master Plan.
• Include a question regarding our commitment to Environmental Sustainability on our employee engagement survey.

We know that achieving environmental sustainability doesn’t happen overnight. But we also know that, by working together, we can achieve our long-term goals.

Thanks to everyone who has contributed to helping achieve our goals thus far and for making this planet a better place for all of us to live and work.

And on a personal note, I want to thank Jill Kavoukian, who is retiring in April, for her outstanding service to sustainability and for creating the foundation for our sustainability efforts to continue to progress.

Carol