Sustainability Roadmap Outlines a Greener Path for Hospitals

 Three healthcare organizations teamed up to create a online hub of information and resources for bringing sustainability into hospitals.

The Sustainability Roadmap for Hospitals website covers a broad range of topics relevant to the impacts healthcare facilities can have on people and the environment. The site was created by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering, Association for the Healthcare Environment and American Society for Healthcare Resource and Materials Management.

The site's five main sections give an overview of topics, what is driving sustainability in healthcare, strategies for starting sustainability initiatives, projects and how they're implemented, and resources.

The topics section includes issues like building design, water and waste, explaining why they are relevant to hospitals, opportunities for improvement within them and compliance considerations.

Drivers covers things like energy costs, community pressure, financial reasons, regulations and environmental responsibility, while strategies looks at some main tactics like building sustainability teams, getting support from leadership and funding sustainability initiatives.

The resource section includes, fittingly, resources, as does the implementation section, which shows how to get specific projects done, complete with how-to's, case studies and related tools.

The site is in some ways still a work in progress since it's actively looking for more tools, resources and case studies in order to expand its content and show how other hospitals are benefitting from their own sustainability initiatives.

_{Hospital bed - CC license by Flickr user Daquella manera}