About Us

Practice Greenhealth is the source for environmental solutions for the healthcare sector and lends support to create better, safer, greener workplaces and communities.

Practice Greenhealth is a nonprofit membership organization founded on the principles of positive environmental stewardship and best practices by organizations in the healthcare community.

Goals

Sustainable health care that’s good for the environment, good for patients and staff, and good for the bottom line means action plans to eliminate mercury, reduce and recycle solid waste, reduce regulated and chemical waste, reduce energy and water consumption, create healing environments, and establish green purchasing policies. Our overriding goals:

• Prevent, reduce and otherwise make less waste in the health care sector
• Achieve carbon neutrality in health care
• Reduce energy and water usage
• Build, renovate and purchase responsibly
• Demonstrate mission through respectful work environments
• Engage community on environmental sustainability in design, construction, and operations
• Lead the way in responsible buildings and operations
• Increase recycling programs
• Phase out hazardous substances and toxic chemicals

History

In 1998, the American Hospital Association and the US Environmental Protection Agency signed a landmark agreement to advance pollution prevention efforts in our nation’s healthcare facilities. The resulting Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which was the cornerstone of the Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) initiative, called for: virtual elimination of mercury waste, reduction of the healthcare sector’s total waste volume, chemical waste minimization, and a variety of educational and information sharing activities focused on pollution prevention and toxics minimization.

In 2006, H2E became an independent not-for-profit organization and expanded upon these goals as follows:

• Virtual elimination of mercury
• Reduction of the quantity and toxicity of health care waste – from manufacturing, purchase and use of products and materials, to improved end-of-life management
• Minimization of use and exposure to hazardous chemicals, including persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) substances
• Reducing health care’s environmental footprint through resource conservation and other measurable environmental improvements
• Integrating sustainable design and building techniques with environmentally sound operational practices to create true healing environments