Going the Extra! mile for the environment

Switch to biodiesel helps clear the air

New Children’s Hospital green by design

Building, renovation projects seek LEED certification

Making “green” a smart purchase

Making a difference one department at a time

Recycling surplus can save lives

Smoke-free policy allows patients, visitors, and staff to breathe more easily

Community Advisory Committee aims to improve community health

A green solution for retired printers

New life for old paper

Green awards

Did You Know?

Magee offers prescription for a healthy child environment

Small changes in the cafeteria cause big green results

Tips to take home

Reduce energy consumption: Follow red-bag guidelines

Benefits Update

Benefit Spotlight

Savings Plan default investment elections changed Jan. 1

The annual rite of rebalancing

Give your family peace of mind

Coming soon to My HUB: Corporate Financial Reporting

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

UPMC volunteers share the holidays with local children

Oakland drivers be aware: Boulevard of the Allies construction causes major road closure

Greening initiatives take root

UPMC continues to ‘grow green’

UPMC is “greening” the New Year with the first installment of a second $250,000 grant from The Heinz Endowments to develop extensive environmental initiatives and disease-prevention programs that expand on the health system’s commitment to environmental health, safety, and stewardship. UPMC also has committed $5 million to a green action fund to support systemwide waste reduction, energy efficiency, renewable resources, and conservation.

Under the direction of Allison Robinson, PhD, director, Environmental Initiatives, UPMC has been advancing a new model for environmentally safe practices that involves systemwide environmental policies, coordinated research initiatives, and environmentally friendly and sustainable operations. UPMC has established a system-level Green Team for goal setting, review, and measurement of greening initiatives in coordination with facility-based green teams. An organizational structure is in place that engages representatives of business units across the system. UPMC isn’t just buying, building, and greening operations, from supply chain to waste management. It’s linking all aspects of its medical mission to greening initiatives.

“Our systemwide initiatives have been drafted and pilot projects are in place or in process, such as paper reduction and recycling, surplus materials exchange, sustainable energy, and making all of our hospitals mercury-free,” says Dr. Robinson. “Across our scope of operations, UPMC is innovating and creating a model for disease prevention and reduction. This is the impact we can make for our patients and communities.”

UPMC has established a Community Advisory Committee and is deepening relationships with external organizations, such as Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E), Healthcare Without Harm, Pittsburgh Regional Clean Cities, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). UPMC is linking community food pantries interested in the health system’s food surplus and will head a senior leadership panel at the CleanMed 2008 conference. Collaborative projects with the University of Pittsburgh’s Mascaro Sustainability Institute include a project on sustainable ergonomic design for call and data centers.

UPMC’s Green Team will conduct a systemwide audit using an H2E tool to establish benchmarks to measure system change. In conjunction with the DOE, the health system is developing a first-of-its-kind workshop on energy efficiency in health care. UPMC also will co-sponsor a household hazardous materials workshop and community-based collections of hazardous household waste products this spring. Defining its medical mission in broad environmental terms, UPMC is expanding education and research in environmental links to disease. Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC, co-sponsor with The Heinz Endowments of the 2007 Women’s Health and the Environment conference, has developed prenatal classes and a tool kit concerning environmental exposures.

“We believe that through The Heinz Endowments grant, UPMC is building a profound model for health care that goes beyond greening its infrastructure and operational systems,” says Ellen Dorsey, PhD, environment program officer, The Heinz Endowments. “UPMC’s greening initiatives and innovative research provide the connective tissue linking environment to disease. This is pathbreaking and hugely significant in its impact.”

Systemwide initiatives and individual facility-based programs are too numerous to cover in detail in one news article. To offer a snapshot of these programs, much of this special eight-page issue of Extra! will be devoted to spotlighting specific greening initiatives that are in pilot stages or already part of the health system’s operations. Inside, you’ll find stories on UPMC’s efforts to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for one of the first environmentally sustainable pediatric hospitals; Food Services’ efforts to be more eco-friendly; equipment recycling efforts taking place through Global Links; and how the new print management initiative will reduce paper use.

Through the support of The Heinz Endowments and its own investments in sustainability, UPMC is taking a leadership role in modeling environmentally safe health care for better therapeutic results.