Greening Health Care

Ecology Center salutes release of new tool to help hospitals and other medical facilities choose more environmentally sensitive products

Tracey Easthope, director of environmental health programs at the Ecology Center, is among the national leaders saluting the release of a tool to help hospitals identify, request and procure...

Ecology Center joins appeal to manufacturers: 'Adopt principles in support of safer chemicals'

Tracey Easthope, environmental health director at the Ecology Center, is among the national leaders calling on manufacturers to make sure the interior furnishings they supply to hospitals are free...

The health care sector is now 18% of the economy and one of the largest users of chemicals. That’s why greening the sector is so important, and a priority activity of the Ecology Center.

Our work to transform the design of the chemicals and materials used in health care so that they are safer for people and the environment includes advocacy, research and material development.

Here's a link to our latest project: The Safer Chemicals Challenge for the Healthier Hospitals Initiative. More than 150 hospitals have signed on to the challenge to reduce toxic chemicals in products used in their hospitals.

What's New?

A new report suggests that greening hospitals can actually lower costs. Can Sustainable Hospitals Help Bend the Cost Curve lays out the case.

Ecology Center staff organized and participated in three sessions at the recent CleanMed conference in Boston. The sessions, on "The Future of Materials," and "Implementing the Safer Chemicals HHI Challenge," will be available on the CleanMed website. Staff also helped organize a pre-meeting on safer flame retardants in health care. For more information, contact us!

See our press release and letter on removing flame retardants from products used in health care.

Press Release [PDF]

Letter to Vendors [PDF]

For more about our work:

With Health Care Without Harm

http://www.noharm.org/us_canada/issues/chemicals/

With Practice Greenhealth
http://practicegreenhealth.org/initiatives/greening-supply-chain

With the Healither Hospitals Initiative
http://healthierhospitals.org/hhi-challenges/safer-chemicals

To see model health care chemical policies, see:

VHA/Novation Chemicals Policy
https://www.vha.com/AboutVHA/Citizenship/Pages/ ChemicalsManagement.aspx

Premier Chemicals Policy [PDF]

Dignity Health Chemicals Policy [PDF]