Providence Swedish earns 16 national awards for environmental sustainability
Sustainability is core to our mission, and we’re proud to share that our environmental stewardship efforts have earned 16 Practice Greenhealth awards for our Providence Swedish facilities across Puget Sound.
Practice Greenhealth is the nation’s leading organization dedicated to environmental sustainability in health care. Sustainability means looking at how our operations affect the health and safety of our environment as well as the health of our patients, staff, visitors, and local community.
“Together, Providence Swedish hospitals took home 16 awards in the nation’s premier recognition program for environmental performance in our industry. These awards are a testament to the hard work and important work our family of organizations has done to make environmental stewardship a priority,” says Elizabeth Wako, M.D., interim president and CEO of Swedish Health Services. “Congratulations to these campuses on their achievements.”
Strategies to address sustainability at our organization include minimizing recycling waste, addressing chemicals of concern, lowering energy and water consumption, sourcing food and products sustainably, and establishing environmentally preferable purchasing criteria. At Providence Swedish, we know sustainability is essential to better care for our patients, communities, and planet.
In recent years, we have made great strides toward reducing our impact on the environment, and we are committed to doing even more.
“Thank you, to the many caregivers, frontline workers and administrators who are committed to this work and bring innovation, ingenuity, and adaptability to help us dramatically improve our footprint,” says Frank Papp, senior sustainability program manager at Providence Swedish.
Here’s a complete list of Providence Swedish's awards across Puget Sound:
Providence Swedish First Hill - The Partner for Change Award for broad environmental excellence, the Making Medicine Mercury Free Award, and the ministry earned Greening the OR Recognition.
Providence Swedish Cherry Hill - The Partner for Change Award for broad environmental excellence and the Making Medicine Mercury Free Award.
Providence Swedish Issaquah - The Emerald Award for robust environmental excellence; the ministry also earned Greening the OR Recognition.
Providence Swedish Ballard - The Partner for Change Award for broad environmental excellence and the Making Medicine Mercury Free Award.
Providence Swedish Edmonds - The Partner for Change Award for broad environmental excellence and the Making Medicine Mercury Free Award.
Providence Swedish Regional Medical Center - The Circle of Excellence Award for top scoring transportation program; The Emerald Award for robust environmental excellence, and the ministry earned Greening the OR Recognition.
Providence Swedish St. Peter - The Partner for Change Award for broad environmental excellence.
Providence Swedish Centralia - The Partner for Change Award for broad environmental excellence.
Award descriptions:
The Circles of Excellence Awards celebrates hospitals who have not only earned an award for all-around sustainability achievement but have also been identified as the top scoring programs for each sustainability category.
The Greenhealth Emerald Award recognizes outstanding hospitals from within the Partner for Change applicants. This competitive award recognizes the top 20 percent of applicants and is focused on advanced sustainability programs and exemplary scores in a range of categories.
The Greenhealth Partner for Change Award recognizes superior performance in environmental sustainability, covering a range of different sustainability programs and activities. Winners have also made substantive progress on mercury elimination.
The Greening the Operating Room Award honors facilities that have made substantial progress in reducing the impact of the surgical environment.
The Making Medicine Mercury Free Award recognizes hospitals that have virtually eliminated mercury from their facilities and have made a commitment to continue to be mercury free.
About Providence Swedish
Providence Swedish has served the Puget Sound region since the first Providence hospital opened in Seattle in 1877 and the first Swedish hospital opened in 1910. The two organizations affiliated in 2012 and today comprise the largest health care delivery system in Western Washington, with 22,000 caregivers, eight hospitals and 244 clinics. A not-for-profit family of organizations, Providence Swedish provides more than $406 million in community benefit in the Puget Sound Region each year. The health system offers a comprehensive range of services and specialty and subspecialty care in a number of clinical areas, including cancer care, cardiovascular health, neurosciences, orthopedics, digestive health and women’s and children’s care.