“We Strive to Care Wisely for our People, our Resources and our Earth.”
~Providence Health & Services Core Value
This commitment to stewardship is the basis for our efforts to increase environmental sustainability at St. Patrick Hospital and Health Sciences Center. We have been interested in energy efficiency as a financially intelligent strategy for many years. Now, as we take a closer look at our impacts on the environment, we see that using our energy wisely is also an environmentally intelligent strategy.
In 2008, St. Pat’s made a commitment to learn more about our impacts, to begin to measure them, to look for ways to decrease them and to share this learning with others in order to help decrease the environmental impacts of health care overall. Thus far we have initiated a recycling program, applied for and won the EPA Energy Star award and led education efforts for the staff and the community. We are working to reduce our use of plastic bottles, and also of paper. We are screening various products for toxins and avoiding use of them where possible. We are collecting data on all areas of this effort to measure our progress each year. We have held educational events about sustainability in healthcare and have also been represented in civic groups that discuss sustainability.
Looking ahead, we will continue to give the excellent patient care that we value with the least environmental impact possible.