Whether by reducing building energy consumption or driving clinical sustainability programs, essential hospitals are prioritizing initiatives that decrease greenhouse gas emissions across their portfolios. When it comes to sustainability initiatives that require staff to alter their patterns or workflows, organizations understand that a key to success is engaging employees via a collaborative approach that creates a culture of lasting change.
These initiatives often extend well beyond the facilities and sustainability teams and impact clinical staff, thus requiring the active involvement of clinicians, nurses, and administrators. When all employees are engaged in innovation, sustainability becomes embedded in daily operations and ensures long-term success of energy efficiency and preparedness projects within the health system.
Baystate Health’s Commitment to Sustainability and Employee Engagement
Association member Baystate Health, in Springfield, Mass., stands out as an industry leader with a robust sustainability strategy. With a focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions across all three scopes, the health system balances facility-led initiatives with broad employee involvement.
Scopes 1 and 2 — related to direct energy use — are managed primarily by facilities and engineering teams. However, Scope 3 emissions — encompassing waste, staff commuting, and supply chain activities — offer opportunities for staff-driven innovation and action.
Baystate employees are cross departmentally taking initiative in developing and engaging in a variety of impactful sustainability projects relevant to their respective daily work. For example, staff on the medical intensive care unit (MICU) established a sustainability committee focused on reducing the waste associated with direct patient care. They approached the sustainability team with an interest in expanding recycling efforts on their floor. With guidance from Baystate’s sustainability leaders, MICU staff implemented this recycling project and were able to further their work through engagement of their management team on other similar types of projects.
Employee Engagement in Action
Baystate prioritizes opportunities for employees to learn more about how to incorporate sustainability into their work. Standout initiatives include:
- Climate and Coffee: This annual event attracts up to 750 employees across three hospitals and provides an opportunity for the sustainability staff to connect with team members and offer high level updates on current projects and initiatives across the system and provide information on how to get involved in the various programs; particularly waste reduction in clinical spaces.
- Monthly Farmer’s Market: Located on site, local vendors bring fresh, sustainable produce and products to employees, promoting healthier lifestyles while supporting the community and encouraging folks to shop local.
- Unusable Medical Supplies Collection: Baystate Medical Center partners with an organization called Partners for World Health to collect medical supplies that cannot otherwise be used for patient care and sends those supplies to assist in foreign health aid programs. These collections occur on the units with high engagement from nursing and doctoral staff.
- Medical Device Reprocessing: In partnership with multiple entities, Baystate has made strides in expanding its medical device reprocessing program through both increased collections of commonly used products such as SPO2 sensors, as well as expanding the portfolio of collectable products to include certain OR devices. This reprocess and buyback program has led to financial savings for the health system without compromising the integrity of the products used, reduced supplies being sent to landfills, and high employee participation and buy-in.
All of these engagement opportunities are highly visible to employees which contributes to the buy-in necessary to enhance the culture of prioritizing sustainability at Baystate.
Strategies for Sustaining Engagement
Leadership support in healthcare sustainability is critical in ensuring employee buy-in sustains across all the programs and initiatives over time. Leaders at Baystate recognize the integral nature of employee engagement in the success of these programs. This buy-in, combined with innovative outreach and funding strategies, ensures sustainability remains a shared priority. It allows for a more holistic approach to healthcare, one where we prioritize the environment both inside and outside the walls of the hospital to continue to emphasize the link between human health and planetary health.
Baystate uses both internal and external messaging to provide visibility into its work on climate mitigation and resilience. The health system seeks to promote its commitment to sustainability by hosting a webpage on its efforts in this area, sharing news in newsletters and via social media, and integrating sustainability messaging into employee onboarding materials.
A Blueprint for Change
Baystate Health’s efforts reflect how employee engagement is key to a robust sustainability program. By making sustainability relatable and actionable, the organization empowers its employees to view themselves as change agents.
Through a combination of innovative initiatives and forward-thinking leadership, Baystate exemplifies how health care institutions can leverage the power of their workforce to prioritize decarbonization.
To learn more about essential hospitals’ involvement in preparedness and operational efficiency, please visit essentialcommunities.org.
Author