Operational Excellence

May 20 2008

Kaiser Permanente Wins National Green Awards

Kaiser Permanente received 12 awards May 20 for its focus on environmental stewardship and its recognition of the connection between the environment and the health of its members, employees, and communities.

Practice Greenhealth honored Kaiser Permanente with its “System for Change” award, one of only four such awards the environmental organization handed out at its annual banquet May 20. Eleven Kaiser Permanente operating regions and medical centers also received individual awards, which were bestowed at the annual CleanMed 2008, the annual global conference on environmentally sustainable health care.

Kaiser Permanente has a long history of focusing on environmental stewardship, both as an element of good corporate citizenship and a component of preventive medicine. It has worked to phase out the use of Polyvinyl Chloride in construction, eliminated the use of vinyl gloves, purged more than 1,400 pounds of mercury from its facilities, and recycled more than 1 million pounds of electronic waste in 2007 alone.

"Just as we at Kaiser Permanente are committed to the health and safety of our members and the communities we serve, we are equally committed to the health and safety of our environment," said Raymond J. Baxter, Ph.D., senior vice president, Community Benefit, Research and Health Policy.

Practice Greenhealth is the result of the merger of the two leading organizations – Hospitals for a Healthy Environment and the Green Guide for Health Care – with a new clean energy and energy efficiency program – Healthcare Clean Energy Exchange.

For details, read this press release.