Megan Shreve, chair of the WellSpan Board of Directors, (left) joins Roxanna L. Gapstur, PhD, RN, WellSpan President and CEO, to sign sustainability pledges launching our Path to 2030.
WellSpan has embarked on sweeping changes to its approach to operations to improve the health of south central Pennsylvanians and our planet. We will be elevating sustainable best practices across our system as part of our vision to reimagine health care. This commitment will help us fulfill the triple aim of improving health, providing better care and lowering costs for consumers.
The United States healthcare industry is a major contributor to rising greenhouse gas emissions, at 8.5 percent of all US greenhouse gas emissions and spends about $8.3 billion in energy annually to support its operations. Hospitals are generally the top water user in the community and produce more than 30 pounds of waste per bed/per day.
As part of this commitment, WellSpan has signed two sustainability pledges: the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health Care Sector Climate Pledge and the Health Care without Harm Climate Challenge, which includes a commitment to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent by 2030. In addition, we have joined Good Food, Healthy Hospitals initiative and are working toward Gold LEED Certification for the WellSpan York Hospital Expansion Project.
Our team of 20,000 strong is setting a path to achieve our 2030 goal by focusing on sustainability work in three areas:
Greening of clinical operations
- Reducing use of anesthesia greenhouse gases
- Building robust recycling programs
- Reprocessing of single-use medical devices
Focusing on sustainable purchasing
- Purchasing locally to reduce environmental impact and strength local economy
- Switching to purchasing reusables and reprocessed products
- Moving more to sustainable interiors and cleaning supplies
Conserving energy every day
- Introducing hybrid vehicles to fleet
- Installing electric vehicle charging stations
- Prioritizing capital improvements that reduce energy use
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