Earth-friendly practices add up to savings for Scottsdale hospitals

Scottsdale Healthcare goes green by emphasizing energy savings and recycling

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Innovation, collaboration and teamwork have enabled Scottsdale Healthcare to reduce millions of pounds of waste in local landfills. It’s just a portion of the efforts to go green by the nonprofit Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Medical Center, Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Medical Center and Scottsdale Healthcare Thompson Peak Hospital.

Picture a huge pile of items such as TVs, light bulbs, batteries and medical equipment that if put on a scale would weigh more than 2 million pounds.

Now envision a 325-ton mountain of cardboard and a 295-ton stack of paper. Put it all together, and you’ll see how much Scottsdale Healthcare does every year to recycle and reduce waste in landfills.

“Scottsdale Healthcare operates its hospitals as green and sustainable facilities,” said Tom Sadvary, president & CEO. “Our staff members have been very helpful in suggesting ways we can reduce our impact on the environment, and we continue to do more each year.”

Sadvary noted that many in the community may not be aware Scottsdale Healthcare’s efforts to be efficient and environmentally friendly. Examples of Scottsdale Healthcare’s efforts to go green include:

• Establishing a Green and Sustainability Committee of employees and volunteers.
• Replacing some 40 pickup trucks with electric vehicles at all three hospital campuses.
• Installing energy-efficient lighting in three parking garages, saving approximately $82,000 annually.
• Reusing, selling or donating thousands of surplus items rather than hauling them to a landfill. The items include furniture, cabinets and TVs to medical and exercise equipment.
• Reducing natural gas consumption by 10% in its power plants.
• 300 copy machines were replaced with new models using 40% less energy.
• Eliminating printed payroll notices, saving $150,000 annually and some 200,000 printed notices.
• By participating in the Greenhouse Gases Reduction Initiative, Scottsdale Healthcare reduced its CO₂ use by 1,840,100 pounds a year.

Scottsdale Healthcare was an early adopter of employee van pools and subsidizes mass transit use by providing employee bus and light rail passes. Bicycle lockers were installed at each hospital for employees in 2008.

Valley Metro honored Scottsdale Healthcare with five awards in 2008 for its commitment to improving air quality – Out standing Leadership, Outstanding Vanpooler, Outstanding Trip Reduction Program, Outstanding Marketing and Creativity, and Outstanding Bike Program.

Submitted on behalf of Scottsdale Healthcare
Scottsdale Healthcare  (http://www.shc.org/) is the not-for-profit parent organization of Scottsdale Healthcare Osborn Medical Center, Scottsdale Healthcare Shea Medical Center, Scottsdale Healthcare Thompson Peak Hospital, Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center, Scottsdale Clinical Research Institute, TGen Clinical Research Services at Scottsdale Healthcare, Scottsdale Healthcare Home Health Services, Scottsdale Healthcare Community Health Services, NOAH Clinics and Scottsdale Healthcare Foundation. Scottsdale Healthcare ER wait times are updated every three minutes at http://www.fastertimes.org/.

Technorati Tags: Arizona, recycling, Scottsdale, Scottsdale Healthcare, Valley Metro