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LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR Food, Glorious Food!You probably remember your parents scolding, “It’s a shame to waste food!” Or maybe it was your grandparents. Today’s generation of kids is growing up in a fast-food, throwaway society, unconscious of where food comes from or what it costs to bring it to the table. But our awareness of the planet’s limited resources – of food’s real value – is coming back, reflecting our growing understanding that there’s only so much clean air, water and soil to sustain us and all other life on Earth. As the stories and links below demonstrate, the health care industry is helping to lead the movement toward composting and other healthier and more efficient ways of dealing with food waste. Our old folks were right: It is a shame not to make the most of something so essential to us all, our most direct daily connection to the world on which we live. Laura Brannen, Director, H2E |
In This Issue |
Success Story: Composting in Seattle
They say prevention is worth a pound of cure. At least Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) thinks so. The Resource Venture program provides free waste composting assistance to all businesses, including health care facilities.
How does it work? Environmental specialists from Cascadia Consulting Group are hired by SPU to recruit and assist businesses in reducing their environmental footprint. These specialists provide free consultation, strategy, financial analyses, employee training and follow-up concerning waste reduction, water conservation, stormwater management, green building and climate change.
Recruiting hospitals for environmental initiatives requires the active participation of both the head chef and the facility manager. These are the champions who make programs such as recycling and composting work. Resource Venture helps food service and facilities planners to address common obstacles with creative solutions; for example, suggesting that a hospital with limited docking space find a waste management vendor with a dumpster-free service.
Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, WA diverts 1,400 pounds of waste each week from landfills through composting. This is equivalent to saving about 40 percent on Childrens’ annual waste bill. By minimizing the use of garbage disposal, Children’s saves approximately $50 per day on their water bills, not to mention machinery energy and maintenance costs.
All this success has piqued other Seattle hospitals’ interest. University of Washington, Swedish and Northwest hospitals are seeking Cascadia Consulting Group’s help to save resources and money. All this waste prevention effort is bound to cure a lot of costly, polluting ills!
Rebecca Buscher and Mitch Birchfield
Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center
- H2E Partner since: January 2005
- Contact: Mitch Birchfield, Environmental Services Director and Hazardous Material Manager, mbirch@chmc.org, 206-987-1335
- Partnering with: Cascadia Consulting, Rebecca Buscher, Senior Associate, rebecca@cascadiaconsulting.com, 206-343-9759, ext. 130
Focus on Food Waste
Food service programs can green their operations by taking steps to reduce their direct environmental impact – for example, by reducing waste that goes to landfills. And they can affect the “big picture” of our society and economy through measures including purchasing food from low-impact producers.
Here are some ideas and resources to help you green up your food operations:
- Compost kitchen and food waste. Consider on or off-site composting programs. Consider working with other local businesses in your area to combine composting efforts to reduce costs. See Composting at Fletcher Allen Health Care.
- Investigate food recovery programs to reduce food waste going to landfills and reduce waste costs. Consider giving food waste to farmers as feed stock. See California Integrated Waste Management Board’s Food Scrap Management.
- Keep food preparation and storage areas clean and free of unnecessary items and food debris that will attract unwanted pests. Implement a non-chemical or less-toxic Integrated Pest Management Plan. See H2E’s Integrated Pest Management Program 10 Step Guide.
- Use washable plates, eating utensils, glasses and cups for cafeteria and patient service. See Waste Consciousness Leads to the Return of Washable Dishes: A Case Study.
- Recycle glass, cans, cardboard, plastics, and paper, whenever possible. Keep food waste out of containers you want to recycle. Avoid throwing away items that can be reused. Recycle kitchen greases; don’t throw them into garbage, septic, sewer, or down the drain.
- Find more, including “Talking Points” for enlisting your facility’s support, at H2E’s Food Services page!
- Sign on to H2E’s July 20 Teleconference, Toxicity and Volume Reduction Opportunities in Food Services – A Case Study by Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle, WA.
Intriguing Links
The Pacific Northwest Pollution Prevention Resource Center is a nonprofit organization disseminating the region’s most-informative, unbiased pollution prevention information. PPRC collaborates with business, government, nongovernment organizations and others to promote environmental protection through pollution prevention Even if you’re not working in the great Northwest, this is a great site to see! And if you do work in or visit the region, look for environmentally-oriented events on PPRC’s Calendar page.
Learn about purchasing sustainable and healthy food: Health Care Without Harm’s Healthy Food in Health Care Pledge program!
The gem of EPA’s food waste reduction pages is Don’t Throw Away That Food: Strategies for Record-Setting Waste Reduction, a roundup of The Waste Reduction Record-Setters Project. It includes the report on Fletcher Allen Health Care’s composting program, which achieves 90% Recovery of Preconsumer Food Discards – and is also available on our H2E site. And while the other eight case studies on the page aren’t health care facilities, you’ll find their strategies fascinating and inspiring!
(EPA Ribbon graphic available)
July Teleconferences
All H2E teleconferences take place at 1 PM Eastern Time. Access to all teleconferences is included in a $199 annual subscription to H2E. Subscribe now!
July 13: Green Building Series – Specifying Green Furniture and Furnishings
July 27: Introduction to H2E and Data Collection
New H2E Partners
The following facilities and organizations have recently joined H2E:
Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, Denver, CO
Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC
East Morgan County Hospital, Brush, CO
Grinnell Regional Medical Center, Grinnell, IA
Hospice & Palliative Care Services, Louisville, KY
Intellamed, Bryan, TX
Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, MD
Langlade Memorial Hospital, Antigo, WI
Larsen Engineers, Rochester, NY
Lionakis Beaumont Design Group, Modesto, CA
Providence Health & Services, Southern California Region, Burbank, CA
Roanoke-Chowan Hospital, Ahoskie, NC
South Miami Hospital, South Miami, FL
Welcome to H2E!
Want to know who’s standing with you in the vanguard of healthy health care? You can find the full list of H2E Partners here. Facilities are listed by state and organizations by category.
Join H2E
Becoming an H2E Partner is easy, free, and gives you access to great resources. Founded by the US Environmental Protection Agency, the American Hospital Association, the American Nurses Association and Health Care Without Harm, H2E provides practical tools to improve health care’s environmental performance and rewards the field’s best performers. Learn more at www.h2e-online.org.
Toll-Free: 1-800-727-4179
Fax: 1-866-379-8705
Email: H2E@H2E-online.org
Web: www.h2e-online.org
H2E - Hospitals for a Healthy Environment
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