It Isn t Always Easy Being Green

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1 It Isn t Always Easy Being Green Hudson Hospital & Clinic s Green Team Newsletter Issue 13 August Sustainability Goals Hudson s Green Team Goals The Hudson Hospital & Clinics Green Team will be working on the following goals for 2013: i Energy: o Work with HealthPartners Facility Construction team to ensure sustainable aspects of new MOB are considered. o Continue to work with Xcel Energy and Focus on Energy to identify at least 3 projects for future completion. i Waste: o Implement a waste education program o Join the HHI Less Waste Challenge o Perform at least one waste sort o Improve data collection for mixed recycling St. Croix County Fair Support purchasing food locally Jean Weiler, Manager of Nutrition Services and Colleen Sexton, Dietician attended the St. Croix County Fair the weekend of July 17 th 21 st in Glenwood City to purchase a steer from the 4H and FFA animal auction. The steer named Magic was raised by a member of the Dry Run Go Getters 4H club in New Richmond and weighed in at 1,122 pounds. The steer will be processed at the Olson s Woodville Meats in Woodville and will be served in the Café and in patient meals. This is a great way to support purchasing food locally as well as supporting the youth in our community. In 2012 our nutrition department was able to increase our total food purchased locally to 14%. i Materials/Resources: o Eliminate Styrofoam from campus o Join the HHI Healthier Foods Challenge o Increase the number of garden plots o Increase the size of the nutrition service garden plot i Community/Education: o Join the HHI Engaged Leadership Challenge o Ensure all employees complete the sustainability education module o Sustain Hudson Committee o Community Outreach Programs: Roadside Clean Up Sustainability Booth at Anniversary Event Community Garden Orientation Jean with Magic at the St. Croix County Fair Page 1

2 Community Supported Agriculture Threshing Table Farms Hudson Hospital & Clinics is again a pick up site for produce from Threshing Table Farms. Threshing Table Farms is a farm with locally grown produce that is delivered each week during the growing season from July to October. Annual Engagement Survey Survey Results On the Annual Engagement Survey they asked the following question: I am aware of sustainability (green) initiatives my company has implemented? The results show that we have increased awareness regarding sustainability across the organization! See below: Location Healthier Hospitals Initiative Leading Communities to a Healthier Future Healthier Hospitals Initiative (HHI) is a national campaign to implement a new approach to improving environmental health and sustainability in health care. HHI is a guide for hospitals to use for reaching their sustainability goals in six different challenges. The Hudson Green Team has signed up for the following three challenges to complete over the next two years: i i i Engaged Leadership support the institutionalization of an organizational wide sustainability initiative Healthier Food Offer healthier food for staff, patients and visitors Less Waste Reduce waste and increase recycling. HP Overall 65% 66% Hudson Hospital & Clinics 88% 94% Cup Use Patient Cups Have you seen this cup being used around campus? In 2012 we used 2.11 million of these 16 ounce cups and 1.75 million 10 ounce cups throughout the HealthPartners organization. That is a lot of cups! These cups are meant to be used for patient and visitor use only. Please help us reduce our cup expense/waste by bringing your own cup from home. If you have any suggestions on how we can reduce our cup expense/waste, please contact Kim Kiel in Materials Management. Green Box Program Reusable lunch box program The Café has recently rolled out a new Green Box program for reusable to-go containers to embrace our sustainable business practices by helping to reduce waste. You can purchase a Green Box in the Café for a one-time fee of $7.50. When you return your Green Box you can either get a clean one or you will receive a Membership Card that you may redeem the next time you need a Green Box. The Nutrition department is responsible for cleaning, sanitizing and managing the Green Boxes. The nutrition department has surpassed their goal of selling 24 Green Box memberships. If you are interested in joining the program, please contact Jean Weiler. The Green Box program has also helped us reach our goal of being Styrofoam free by 2014! Page 2

3 Community Garden Summer is here! Summer has finally arrived and the Community Garden is off to a great start. This year the garden has all 66 plots spoken for which is quite the jump from the original 38 plots when the garden was started in The nutrition garden plot expanded from last year and will be growing food to be served in the Café as well as in patient meals. Also, there are three test garden plots being used by the Master Gardener Volunteers who will evaluate the productivity and quality of different vegetables throughout the season. If you have time stop out and take a look at the garden! Recycling New decals have arrived Did you know that all blue recycling bins at Hudson Hospital & Clinics are single-sort (mixed) recycling? We now have new decals on recycling bins to make it easier for you to know what goes where. In the blue bin s you are able to put any of the following items to be recycled: i Glass i Newspaper i Magazines i Metal i Plastics # 1 - # 7 Here are some helpful recycling tips: i Make sure any food containers are rinsed out and as clean as possible. i Anything containing patient information or confidential information should be put in the shred bin. Take a look around your area to see what items you use daily that can be recycled that you may not have been aware of! If you have any questions on recycling, please ask a Green Team member. Page 3

4 Dumpster Diving for a Cause Hudson s Waste Sort What is a waste sort? A waste sort is literally sorting through a certain amount of trash to see what ended up in the trash that could have been recycled or put into another appropriate container. Not only does keeping recyclables out of the trash save money on disposal costs, but it prevents more volume that needs to be buried in our landfills. Waste sorts are planned regularly at multiple HealthPartners locations to help our Green Teams set goals and understand the waste management challenges their facility faces. Hudson s waste sort results 149 pounds of recyclables were found in the 830 pounds of trash at Hudson, which amounts to nearly 18% of the total waste that could have been recycled. This still means that a majority of what ends up in Hudson s trash is actually trash but it also means we can do better. See the image of the dumpster on page 5: all of the recyclables in this container were found in one day s worth of trash. Multiply that amount over the course of a week or even a year and there is a considerable volume of material that could be put to good use! Among the items found in the trash, there were a number of Dornach Suction Canister Lids (shown on page 5). Upon further investigation with the manufacturer, it was found that the lids could be recycled which we have already started to do. Plus we found cans, bottles, boxes and paper. Remember all patient information goes in the shred bins. When we see something coming up repeatedly in the trash that should go to recycling, that s a great opportunity for us to do more education and communication, said Dana Slade, Manager of Sustainability Programs at HealthPartners. In this case, people may not have known this item is recyclable. Our acceptance criteria for recycling has expanded considerably. In fact, most facilities organization-wide now offer single-sort (mixed) recycling, which makes it even easier to know what goes in the trash and what doesn t. Look for new signage that will be rolling out soon on our recycling bins, plus new trash decals too. With just a little time to familiarize yourself with proper disposal habits, Hudson can make a huge difference in its sustainability efforts. Page 4

5 Dornach Suction canister lids that are recyclable Dumpster of recyclables from the trash that could have been recycled. Sustainability Website HealthPartners Sustainability Efforts HealthPartners recently created a sustainability website to keep people informed of the sustainability efforts within the organization. Please take time to view the site with the following link: Also, please review the article below on five things you can do to reduce your waste in Page 5

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