Sustainability

A healthy human greatly depends on a healthy environment.

St. John’s Health is committed to protecting and preserving the environment by promoting cost-effective business practices consistent with the following principles:

• We will meet or exceed all environmental laws and regulations
• We support and encourage recycling of the materials used within the health system
• We minimize waste and ensure that contaminated waste is disposed of in a safe and responsible manner
• We encourage the use of alternate transportation through financial and other incentives
• We purchase products that contain recyclable or reusable materials whenever possible
• We practice water conservation and energy efficiency
• We use environmentally friendly cleaning products whenever possible
• We strive to eliminate the emissions of toxins or dangerous substances into the air, water, or earth
• We participate with organizations, businesses, and the public to encourage environmentally responsible practices within our community and state.

Sustainability is one of St. John's core values. As a member of Practice Green Health for the last 7 years, SJH has received 9 national environmental excellence awards and received guidance for goals achieved across many departments.

Practice Greenhealth is the health care sector’s go-to source for information, tools, data, resources, and expert technical support on sustainability initiatives that help members meet their goals. More than 1200 hospitals nationwide are members, working to decrease healthcare’s environmental footprint.

2023 Practice Green Health Goals:

1. Transportation: Increase commuter bus ridership by 5% calculated by employee bus pass reimbursement pre and post promotion of services.
2. Food/Less Meat: Reduce our percentage of meat purchased per food dollar spent by 3%, by increasing offerings of plant-based foods and reducing meat content in standardized recipes.
3. Waste: Complete a review of our RMW contract with a goal to reduce RMW by switching to reusable sharps containers by the end of 2023.

Successes:

1. Started a food composting program in 2020 that diverts over 25 tons of food prep waste yearly and saves money over landfilling.
2. Made the switch to recycled content white office paper and reduced our paper usage by 32 % over the last 6 years.
3. Used a $25K grant in 2022 to accelerate our conversion to LED lighting, now at about 75% LED’s.
4. Purchased two Level 2 dual port EV chargers to be installed on the new parking area of the main campus in June 2023
5. Increased our recycling/diversion from 107 tons in 2016 to 180 tons in 2022.

What started as a recycling committee 30 years ago has grown to an impactful and far-reaching program.