April 4—Eleven of the nation’s largest hospitals systems –including Kaiser Permanente, HCA Healthcare, and Boston-based Partners HealthCare — today called on their industry to be better environmental stewards.
The Healthier Hospitals Initiative challenges hospitals to reduce energy use and waste, purchase environmentally friendlier products and serve healthier foods. The effort is as much about reducing health risks and environmental damage, as it is about lowering costs, officials said.
Organizers, who hope to have 2,000 hospitals participating by 2014, did not list specific goals such as units of energy saved, waste reduced or unhealthy food discarded in a press briefing Tuesday.