SUSTAINABILITY OFFICERS:

Showing How Water Matters for World Environment Day

Feature Company: UPMC

Sustainability Coordinator/Representative: Allison Robinson, Ph.D.

Number of Employees: 50,000

Notable sustainability projects:

As the leading health care provider and employer in western Pennsylvania, UPMC regards environmental protection as essential to the health of our community. We are committed to environmentally sustainable practices across all facets of our operations—from construction and renovation of facilities to hospital housekeeping to clinical research.
With support from the Heinz Endowments and other partners, UPMC has been recognized nationwide for creating a new model of sustainability for the health care sector, one that goes beyond buying and building “green” to incorporating environmental stewardship into all aspects of our mission. UPMC’s wide-ranging and award-winning green efforts include:

• Creation of a $5 million “green action fund” in 2007 to support new environmental initiatives across the health system. Projects funded to date include installation of energy-efficient heating and cooling systems.  
• Commitment to green construction and renovation.  The new Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC will be one of the first LEED-certified children’s hospitals in the nation, thanks to the use of recycled building materials,  low VOC paints and carpets, green roofing systems, water-efficient landscaping, water fixtures that reduce usage and other environmental factors. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, defines standards for environmentally sustainable construction. Likewise, UPMC’s renovation of executive and administrative offices at U.S. Steel Tower won LEED-Silver certification for energy conservation and environmental design. A new tower at UPMC Passavant-McCandless and the new UPMC East campus in Monroeville are also expected to be LEED-certified.
• Development of a first-of-its-kind energy management program for hospitals in collaboration with the U.S. Dept. of Energy. UPMC serves on the steering committee of the DOE’s Health Energy Alliance, a partnership with other national healthcare leaders to lower energy usage, cut costs and reduce pollution in this energy-intensive industry.  
• Establishment of the Pediatric Environmental Medicine Center at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, with a five-year grant from the Heinz Endowments. UPMC recruited a nationally known asthma researcher to serve as the center’s clinical director while leading efforts to identify how environmental risk factors impact children with asthma in western Pennsylvania.
• A ban on smoking at all health system facilities and grounds, effective July 2007, with smoking-cessation assistance offered free of charge to staff . The move reinforced UPMC’s commitment to maintaining a healthy and safe environment for staff and patients.
• Elimination of DEHP and PVC plastic--toxic substances linked to birth defects and other illnesses--from medical devices used in the neonatal intensive care unit at Magee-Womens Hospital of UPMC.
• Purchase of renewable energy certificates from First Energy to offset 10 percent of UPMC’s energy demand.
• Partnership with Duquesne Light to implement software that will put PCs into “sleep” mode at appropriate times and cut PC power usage by 50 percent. 
• Donation of  more than a quarter million pounds of medical supplies over the past decade to Global Links, a local, not-for-profit organization that recovers surplus medical materials from U.S. hospitals and makes them available to hospitals serving underprivileged populations in developing countries. This helps the environment, as well as needy countries, by keeping materials out of landfills.
• Promotion of paper reduction through a centralized printing services contract with Xerox, adoption of electronic medical records, and a paperless paycheck and retirement accounting systems. In addition, the health system now recycles more than 1 million pounds of paper annually and is expanding those efforts.
• Replacement of plastic and foam containers in hospital food services with biodegradable corn and paper-based products.
• Education of staff , patients and communities on environmentally sustainable practices and environmental links to disease. Magee, winner of the 2009 Partner for Change Award from Practice Greenhealth, offers a class to families on environmental health concepts and, since 2005, has included environmental education in its childbirth and newborn classes. The hospital has also sponsored the Teresa Heinz Women’s Environmental Health Conference in 2007 and 2008, attracting over 2,000 attendees. Children’s Hospital provides a Continuing Medical Education-accredited lecture series for residents, which focuses on environmental health issues.
• Replacement of all mercury-containing items found in patient care devices, lab thermometers, mercury switches, thermostats, and traditional fluorescent bulbs, at UPMC Presbyterian Shadyside and Magee.  
• Conversion of three Magee courtyards into herb, vegetable and healing gardens. Designed by the Phipps Conservatory, the gardens will provide fresh ingredients to be used in the preparation of healthful meals for staff and patients.

For more information about our services, our achievements, and other sustainable initiatives, please see www.upmc.com.

Pittsburgh's Sustainability Officers: Connecting regionally to contribute globally