VUMC Recognized for Environmental Programs

Pictured from left to right: Anna Gilmore-Hall, Executive Director, Health Care without Harm; Laura Brannen, Executive Director, Hospitals for a Healthy Environment; Susan Johnson, Assistant Director, VEHS; Bob Wheaton, Director, VEHS; Mac Robinson, Vice President, Personal Membership Division of the American Hospital Association

On May 14, 2007, Vanderbilt University Medical Center received Partner Recognition at the Environmental Excellence Summit hosted by Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) in Minneapolis, MN. The recognition commends VUMC for their pollution prevention efforts. Bob Wheaton, Director of Vanderbilt Environmental Health and Safety (VEHS), and Susan Johnson, Assistant Director for VEHS and VUMC Safety Officer, traveled to Minneapolis to accept this recognition for VUMC.

“Vanderbilt University Medical Center has made a crucial connection between preventing pollution and protecting patient and community health, “said Laura Brannan, Executive director of Hospitals for a Healthy Environment. “This facility is on the leading edge of a revolution in making health care safer and healthier for patients, staff, the community and the environment.”

Jointly founded by the American Hospital Association, the Environmental Protection Agency, Health Care without Harm, and the American Nurses Association, H2E is an independent not-for-profit organization focused on improving health care’s environmental performance.

VUMC received this recognition due to its many programs related to energy conservation, recycling, and pollution prevention. Susan Johnson completed the lengthy application for this award. She says, “In gathering the information for this award, I was surprised and very pleased to find how much work has been done at VUMC in these areas”.

For example, VUMC has been aggressively implementing energy efficiency and conservation programs over the past several years. These energy saving initiatives have been spearheaded by Plant Services Director, Ken Browning. Ken and his staff have completed several projects that reduce VUMC’s power consumption through the installation of more efficient electrical lighting, reduction of steam usage through improved maintenance procedures, and replacement of several mechanical systems for providing Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) that reduce both energy and water usage. Most of these changes have been transparent to the faculty, staff, students and patients who use VUMC facilities daily and have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in operating expenses and millions of tons of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions.

Another recent example of environmental responsibility is the VUMC Campaign for Awareness, Recycling, and Environmental Sustainability (CARES) medical student group who started a pilot solid waste recycling program in Light Hall last August. Recycling bins were placed throughout Light Hall for the collection of paper, plastic beverage containers, and aluminum cans. With VUMC CARES spearheading the educational campaign and Daris Merriweather from VUMC School of Medicine Environmental Services managing the waste, this new program has already recycled almost 44,000 pounds of material from Light Hall in just four months. This pilot program is being expanded this year to other areas of VUMC.

In March, 2007, Andrea George, Associate Director of VEHS, was named as Sustainability Coordinator for Vanderbilt University and VUMC. In this newly created position, she has been gathering information and coordinating various environmental sustainability efforts throughout Vanderbilt. This “SustainVU” web site catalogs these many programs and efforts, and provides more information.

“We believe that our collective effort to reduce pollution and improve our environmental profile is an essential part of our education, research and patient care missions. Everyone at VUMC shares equally in this recognition and should feel proud of this accomplishment” said Bob Wheaton.