Vision, Mission, Goals & MOU
Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) is creating a national movement for environmental sustainability in health care. H2E was jointly founded by the American Hospital Association, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Health Care Without Harm, and the American Nurses Association. To achieve our vision, mission and goals, H2E is educating health care professionals about pollution prevention opportunities and providing a wealth of practical tools and resources to facilitate the industry’s movement toward environmental sustainability.
Vision
H2E is based on a vision of a healthy health care system – a system in which an environmentally aware and engaged health care community is dedicated to the health of patients, workers, their communities, and the global environment. We envision a system where patients and staff interact in a healing environment that embraces safer building products, clean air, reduced toxins, safe working practices, energy and water efficiency, education, and a commitment to public health demonstrated through waste volume and toxicity reduction. We envision a system that recognizes the link between our choices and our health, and are working to make that system a reality by creating a national movement for environmental sustainability in health care.
Mission
To educate, motivate, and engage health care professionals to adopt best environmental practices that increase operational efficiency, and support an environmentally sustainable system that improves the health of patients, staff, and the community.
Goals
In 1998, the American Hospital Association and the US Environmental Protection Agency signed a landmark agreement to advance pollution prevention efforts in our nation’s health care facilities. The resulting Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which is the cornerstone of the H2E initiative, called for: virtual elimination of mercury waste, reduction of the health care sector’s total waste volume, chemical waste minimization, and a variety of educational and information sharing activities focused on pollution prevention and toxics minimization.
In 2006, H2E became an independent not-for-profit organization and expanded upon these goals as follows:
- Virtual elimination of mercury
- Reduction of the quantity and toxicity of health care waste – from manufacturing, purchase and use of products and materials, to improved end-of-life management
- Minimization of use and exposure to hazardous chemicals, including persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) substances
- Reducing health care’s environmental footprint through resource conservation and other measurable environmental improvements
- Integrating sustainable design and building techniques with environmentally sound operational practices to create true healing environments
Since its inception, H2E has developed a number of tools to aid in the education and implementation of hospital pollution prevention programs. These tools include:
- A website full of practical tools, information, and resources.
- A peer-to-peer listserv that allows health care professionals to ask technical questions and receive advice and feedback from their peers.
- Monthly webinars for H2E Partners where expert speakers address practical solutions to the many environmental challenges faced by today’s health care facilities.
- A monthly newsletter, STATGreen, that includes an H2E Partner’s success story in dealing with a particular environmental challenge, information about the upcoming H2E webinar, and a variety of other features.
- Model waste minimization, mercury elimination, and other pollution prevention plans.
Memorandum of Understanding
To read the full Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the American Hospital Association and the US Environmental Protection Agency, click here.
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