Sacred Heart Hospital Earns 2010 Environmental Leadership Award

On May 12, Sacred Heart Hospital was awarded the Environmental Leadership Award at CleanMed, an international conference on environmentally sustainable healthcare, held this year in Baltimore. The award was given to the hospital by Practice Greenhealth for demonstrating the highest degree of commitment to environmental sustainability. This year marks the third consecutive year that Sacred Heart Hospital has earned this prestigious award.

“All of our members are committed to improving health care’s environmental performance, but there is an illustrious group of facilities setting the highest standards,” said Practice Greenhealth executive director Bob Jarboe. “They are the best of the best, the recipients of our top award. Sacred Heart Hospital has introduced extensive environmental strategies into health care and is committed to achieving further improvements.”

The Environmental Leadership Award (ELA) is the nation’s most prestigious recognition of innovation in environmentally responsible healthcare. As an ELA recipient, Sacred Heart Hospital has been inducted into Practice Greenhealth’s Environmental Leadership Circle ─ an honor that recognizes hospitals in the vanguard of environmental progress in healthcare for creating a healthy environment for patients, employees, physicians and their communities.

Rick Beckler, director of hospitality services at Sacred Heart Hospital and chair of the hospital’s green team, received the award on behalf of hospital colleagues. “At Sacred Heart Hospital, protecting our environment is a part of our Franciscan commitment to the people of our community and their environment,” he said. “It’s something critical to our Mission as a Catholic hospital and to our community’s long term health. It’s the right thing to do, and we are committed to continually making our hospital safer and healthier for everyone.”

In the past 12 months, Beckler has given talks on Sacred Heart Hospital’s local food initiatives at conferences in: New Orleans, Chicago, Atlanta and Duluth, MN. He also will be giving a presentation on the hospital’s local food initiative in Cleveland this July.

Practice Greenhealth is the nation’s leading membership and networking organization for institutions in the healthcare community that have made a commitment to sustainable, eco-friendly practices. Members include hospitals, healthcare systems, businesses and other stakeholders engaged in the greening of healthcare to improve the health of patients, staff and the environment. Practice Greenhealth is a source of environmental solutions for the health care sector.