HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital was awarded the 2016 “Greenhealth Partner for Change” Award by Practice Greenhealth, the nation’s leading health care community dedicated to transforming health care worldwide so that it reduces its environmental footprint, becomes a community anchor for sustainability and a leader in the global movement for environmental health and justice. The Award is one of the organization’s Environmental Excellence Awards given each year to honor outstanding environmental achievements in the health care sector.
The Greenhealth Partner for Change Award recognizes health care facilities that continuously improve and expand upon their mercury elimination, waste reduction, recycling and source reduction programs. At a minimum, facilities applying for this award must be recycling 15 percent of their total waste, have reduced regulated medical waste, are well along the way to mercury elimination, and have developed other successful pollution prevention programs in many different areas.
St. Anthony’s received this elite award for the efforts the organization took to become more energy efficient to enhance reverence for the earth in living out its Core Value of Respect. The hospital completed a steam system efficiency project to further reduce energy consumption. In addition, the hospital’s co-mingled recycling program was expanded by installing additional recycling containers in the hospital and expanding co-mingled recycling to two of the off-campus locations.
“As a Practice Greenhealth Partner for Change Award winner, HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital is committed to improving the health of our patients, staff, and community as a whole,” said Dennis Baker, St. Anthony’s Director of Facilities Management. “We take pride in our sustainability efforts to lessen our impact on the environment and look forward to working with Practice Greenhealth to continue this work across the country.”
The Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence Awards were presented May 19 in Dallas, Texas at the CleanMed Conference & Exhibition, THE premier national environmental conference for leaders in health care sustainability.
Along with St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital, three other hospitals in the Southern Illinois Division of Hospital Sisters Health System also were honored with awards from Practice Greenhealth, including HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Belleville (Partner for Change Award), and HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital in Breese and HSHS St. Joseph’s Hospital in Highland (Partner Recognition Award). HSHS Holy Family Hospital in Greenville recently became an affiliate of HSHS and joined the HSHS Southern Illinois Division.
For more information about HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital, visit St. Anthony’s web site at www.stanthonyshospital.org.
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About Hospital Sisters Health System
Hospital Sisters Health System’s (HSHS) mission is to reveal and embody Christ’s healing love for all people through our high quality, Franciscan health care ministry. HSHS provides state-of-the-art health care to our patients and is dedicated to serving all people, especially the most vulnerable, at each of our 14 Local Systems and physician practices in Illinois (Belleville, Breese, Decatur, Effingham, Greenville, Highland, Litchfield, and Springfield) and Wisconsin (Chippewa Falls, Eau Claire, Oconto Falls, Sheboygan, and two in Green Bay). HSHS is sponsored by Hospital Sisters Ministries, and Hospital Sisters of St. Francis is the founding institute. For more information about HSHS, visit www.hshs.org. For more information about Hospital Sisters of St. Francis, visit www.hospitalsisters.org.
About Practice Greenhealth
Practice Greenhealth is the nation’s leading health care community dedicated to transforming health care worldwide so that it reduces its environmental footprint, becomes a community anchor for sustainability and a leader in the global movement for environmental health and justice. To learn more about Practice Greenhealth, visit www.practicegreenhealth.org.
