Not surprisingly, hospitals are among the most energy-intensive facilities around. Numerous healthcare facilities have stepped up their sustainability efforts in order to ease their impact on the environment as well as save costs in the process. Seattle’s Swedish Medical Center has made tremendous strides in its sustainability initiatives, incorporating a Farm-to-Fork program, reducing water and energy use through innovative technology, and slashing waste.

Swedish Medical
Center Case Study

In addition to decreasing its environmental footprint, the medical center also saves more than $40,000 annually.

Swedish is the largest, most comprehensive nonprofit health provider in the Greater Seattle area. It is comprised of three hospital campuses (First Hill, Cherry Hill and Ballard), a freestanding emergency department and specialty center in Issaquah, Swedish Visiting Nurse Services, and the Swedish Physician Division—a network of about 40 primary-care and specialty clinics.

In addition to general medical and surgical care, Swedish is known as a regional referral center, providing specialized treatment in areas such as cardiovascular care, cancer care, neuroscience, orthopedics, high-risk obstetrics, pediatrics, organ transplantation and clinical research.

Farm-to-Fork Program Emphasizes Local Produce

In 2008 Swedish signed the Healthy Food in Healthcare Pledge from Healthcare Without Harm, a commitment to implement a stepwise program to identify and adopt sustainable food procurement.

In keeping with that commitment, Swedish Medical Center kitchens have an agreement with a local produce provider wherein the provider automatically substitutes local (within 300 miles) produce and organic produce if the produce meets predetermined pricing criteria, which is to not exceed Swedish’s regular pricing by 8 percent.

Eric Eisenberg, the medical center’s executive chef, notes that local and organic produce normally never costs more, and seasonal produce often costs less.

Smarter Handwashing and Warewashing
Save 687,000 Gallons Annually

Swedish Medical Center installed 13 HyGenius hand-wash stations at their First Hill campus in July 2005 to help maintain food-safety standards and reduce water consumption at employee hand sinks.

By controlling the amount of water usage through timed distribution, the HyGenius system stops the flow of water that would be wasted down the drain while employees use soap, scrub and dry their hands.

At Swedish Medical Center, employees are required at a minimum to wash hands for 20 seconds five times a day, though based on their workday it might be more. A typical 20-second handwash five times per day consumes approximately 107 ounces of water. Using the HyGenius system, handwashing consumes 43 ounces of water, a saving of 64 ounces of water per wash. When multiplied by the average five daily handwashes per employee per day (320 total handwashes per day), the medical center saves 173,375 gallons of water per year.

This results in a cost saving of $1,531 and at the same time, ensures stronger hygiene standards and improves food safety, saving the organization millions through risk reduction and improved patient safety.

In 2008 the medical center also replaced its existing dishwasherwith a more energy-efficient Hobart Flight-Type warewasher. The Hobart warewasher uses 50 percent less rinse water thanthe previous unit, delivering a saving of 513,677 final rinsegallons per year. That’s an ROI of $5,968 annually.

Tracking and Reducing Waste

The medical center uses the ValuWaste program from LeanPath Inc. to track all pre-consumer food waste and engage staff in the process of reducing pre-consumer food waste. The program involves an automated food-waste system, including a scale and touch-screen kiosk to measure pre-consumer waste.

Using the system, a SWAN (Stop Waste Action Now) team produces charts and reports to set waste-reduction goals for specific foods. Chefs work with production teams to target specific high-waste items and implement changes to production procedures or menus or both until waste drops. They then move to the next goal and sequentially lower pre-consumer food waste, thereby cutting organic waste and saving resources.

The SWAN team also posts waste charts on a Program Information Board so all employees can follow their data collection and progress toward waste-reduction goals.

The program has proved successful. Staff have reduced soup overproduction by 44 percent, or 556 pounds; bakery goods by 43 percent, or 260 pounds; deli meat by 50 percent, or 53 pounds; fresh fruit by 58 percent, or 331 pounds; and grab-and-go salad waste by 37 percent, or 149 pounds.

In total, the medical center has reduced pre-consumer food waste by an average of 974 pounds per week, a reduction of 33 percent.

On an annual basis, prior to starting the ValuWaste program, Swedish was on pace to send 75,556 pounds of pre-consumer waste to a landfill. Through goal setting and procedural changes, they now generate 50,648 pounds annually, representing a reduction of 33 percent. The medical center has avoided 12.5 tons of organic food waste per year and $4,172 in hauling fees. Swedish also reduced food-purchase costs by 0.6 percent through this effort, totaling a net saving of more than $18,000 after annual support fees.

Additional Programs

Additional initiatives include a food-waste donation program and a comprehensive food-waste composting program. Since tracking these initiatives, the medical center has sent nearly 5,000 pounds of leftover food to various food-recovery programs, saving $820 in hauling fees.

The medical center also sends all remaining pre-consumer and post-consumer food waste as well as compostable disposable packaging waste to a composting site. Swedish Medical Center is on pace to send 193,200 pounds of food waste to composting annually, realizing an annual saving of $10,385 compared to landfill disposal.

Swedish Medical Center’s sustainability has been successful because it addresses every element of the EPA Organic Waste Hierarchy. For more information on how to help clients implement a comprehensive sustainability program, click here.

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