Pasadena-based Kaiser Permanente Medical Center Received 10 Environmental Excellence Awards

Pasadena-based Kaiser Permanente Medical Center received 10 environmental excellence awards Thursday night in Boston during Practice Greenhealth’s 2013 CleanMed conference, an annual national environmental gathering for leaders in health care sustainability.

Practice Greenhealth is a national membership organization for hospitals and health systems committed to environmentally responsible operations and care, according to a news statement.

Kaiser Permanente Southern California was presented four Partner for Change Awards and six Partner Recognition Awards.

“For decades, Kaiser Permanente has recognized that the health of our environment influences our personal health,” said Benjamin Chu, MD, MPH, MACP, group president for Kaiser Permanente Southern California and Kaiser Permanente Hawaii.

“These awards are a testament to our long-term commitment to sustainable practices that minimize our impact on the environment, and most importantly, help our members, our employees and the communities we serve achieve total health,” Chu said.

Nationwide, Kaiser Permanente received a total of 29 environmental excellence awards including the Practice Greenhealth’s System for Change Award which recognizes health systems that are working to gather data, set system goals, benchmark and share successes in environmental performance.

This is the fourth time the health care organization has received the System for Change award.

“At Kaiser Permanente, implementing the ‘Three R Strategy’ – Reduce, Reuse and Recycle – has been fundamental to our practices and a driver to meet our environmental stewardship goals,” said Scott Wendling, regional executive of support services and chief energy officer for the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Region.

“Last year in Southern California alone, we diverted 1.1 million pounds of recycled material and 168,000 pounds of reprocessed medical devices that would have otherwise ended up in landfills,” Wendling said.