Newswise — ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic campuses in Jacksonville, Florida; Rochester; Eau Claire, Wisconsin; and La Crosse, Wisconsin, have been awarded for their sustainability efforts by Practice Greenhealth, a national organization dedicated to reducing the impact health care institutions have on the environment.
Mayo Clinic’s Rochester campus and Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire each received the 2017 Greenhealth Emerald Award for demonstrating superior sustainability programs that include setting the standard for eliminating mercury, reducing and recycling waste, achieving sustainable sourcing, and other areas. Both campuses also received special recognition for their efforts to reduce the environmental impact of surgical procedures in operating rooms (OR) with a Greening the OR Initiative Award, an award also shared by the Florida campus.
Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus and Mayo Clinic Health System – Franciscan Healthcare in La Crosse, Wisconsin, each earned the Partner for Change Award for continuously improving and expanding upon their efforts to eliminate mercury, reduce waste, recycle and lessen its impact on the environment. Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire also was honored with additional recognition with the Circles of Excellence Award for its exemplary sustainability performance with waste and water management.
“We are very honored to receive these awards for multiple Mayo Clinic campuses,” says Henry Tazelaar, M.D., chair of the Mayo Clinic Green Advisory Council, which oversees environmental protection practices in Mayo Clinic patient care, education, research and administration. “They demonstrate Mayo Clinic’s deep commitment to stewarding human and environmental resources to advance our mission and strengthen our communities.”
Environmental sustainability efforts continue to increase on all Mayo Clinic campuses, including:
- Campuses completed upgrades to more energy-efficient fixtures such as light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, renovations to older campus buildings to operate more efficiently, and use of energy-efficient building design with new construction. These efforts have conserved more than 175,000 KWH (kilowatt hours) of energy in Rochester since 2010 – enough to provide electricity for more than 6,000 homes for a year.
- In early 2017, Mayo Clinic became a founding member of Greenhealth Exchange, a purchasing cooperative with a mission to accelerate the adoption of new and existing green products in the health care industry. Mayo Clinic staff on its Arizona, Florida and Rochester campuses can use programs to locate reserves of these products or offer surplus products to other Mayo Clinic areas to use.
- Campuses use native plant species that require minimal watering, and drip irrigation and natural coverings (mulch). This reduces weeds and watering demands, as well as designing rain gardens to retain rainwater from running off into nearby sewers. Waterless urinals on the Florida campus and at Mayo Clinic Health System in Eau Claire save more than 100,000 gallons of water a year. Improvements in Mayo Clinic’s heating and cooling systems also have saved millions of gallons of water per year.
- Mayo Clinic Health System in La Crosse dedicates two acres of land for community gardens that support community health through accessibility to local, nutritious and sustainable produce.
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