INDIANAPOLIS – Today, St.Vincent Seton Specialty Hospital, 8050 Township Line Road, will kick off Earth Day with an Environmental Awareness Fair, and host a number of environmentally responsible health care activities to save energy and money for the long-term acute care facility.
The newly constructed freestanding hospital is encouraging its 400 associates to make a lifelong pledge to protect the environment at home, and remain cognizant of their direct impact on the environment as they provide compassionate care to patients at work.
According to Hospitals for a Healthy Environment, a non-profit group of partnering organizations including the American Hospital Association, the health care sector spends more than $8.3 billion on energy annually, and hospitals are among the top 10 water users in their local communities.
“We have a clear understanding that hospitals traditionally use a great deal of energy, so our goal is to make St.Vincent Seton Specialty Hospital an environmentally-friendly health care facility,” said Kristina Patterson, project coordinator. “Our associates will have the necessary education and resources to continue our everlasting goal of protecting the environment. We hope that our efforts resonate throughout the community, so other health care providers take similar initiatives to reduce and save energy.”
During today’s Environmental Awareness Fair, hospital officials will have a tree planting ceremony, and reveal the facility’s increased recycling efforts and plans to purchase more recycled products from highly reputable environmentally friendly companies, such as Method Home.
The hospital is also asking its non-clinical associates to put their personal computers on standby while not being utilized. St.Vincent Seton Specialty Hospital leadership determined that $5 a month could be saved if associates put their computers on standby for four hours a day.
“It is imperative that we take the necessary steps to improve energy efficiency,” said Patterson. “Something as small as putting a personal computer on standby can reduce our energy use and save money while protecting the environment.”
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St.Vincent Seton Specialty Hospital recently entered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ENERGY STAR Challenge. The ENERGY STAR Challenge calls for an energy efficiency improvement of 10 percent or more for then more than 5 million commercial and industrial buildings in the United States.
The EPA estimates that if the energy efficiency of commercial and industrial buildings in the U.S. improved by 10 percent, Americans would reduce greenhouse gas emissions equal to those from about 30 million vehicles while saving about $20 billion.
