Stericycle, Inc. (Nasdaq: SRCL) launched its Carbon Footprint Estimator, designed to encourage hospitals to assess their current carbon impact and to determine ways to lessen their CO2 footprint.
As hospitals explore environmental practices, "green teams" are seeking ways to improve facility practices and policies. Yet few tools exist that specifically help determine a hospital's environmental impact.
Global awareness of the negative effects of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions is still evolving. Many different industry calculators analyze the benefits of total greenhouse gas emissions, yet despite the presence of over 5,000 hospital and healthcare facilities in the U.S., few tools are available to specifically help hospitals account for their environmental impact.
Stericycle's Carbon Footprint Estimator (http://www.stericycle.com/carbon-footprint-estimator.html) is designed to help any U.S. hospital determine the amount of plastic, associated cardboard containers, and CO2 emissions they would keep out of the environment. The healthcare facility can accomplish this by modifying the facility's utilization of sharps containers by switching to Stericycle reusable containers versus disposable containers. No password is required for a hospital to use the tool. The tool's website had more than 600 unique visitors since it launched in June. The Estimator was highlighted at the American Healthcare Resources and Materials Management, American Society for Healthcare Environmental Services and the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology conferences this year.
By providing a minimal amount of public information, a Stericycle customer measures its diminished environmental impact based on actual container utilization. A non-customer would obtain an estimate of its potential diminished footprint. An average 200-bed acute care hospital will divert more than 13,000 pounds of CO2 or the equivalent to the emission from 679 gallons of gasoline. Hospitals with green initiatives are seeking to make a difference to staff, patients and the community as well as physicians who admit patients to various hospitals and appreciate green practices.
In a recent independent survey sponsored by Stericycle, 100% of hospital respondents with the Stericycle Sharps Management Service using Bio Systems reusable containers said the number of needle sticks occurring during sharps disposal decreased significantly. Seventy-seven percent said they experienced between 0-1 needle sticks on an annual basis. Additionally, 91% of infection control and environmental services respondents indicated that this service is a clinical best practice.
According to Brenda Helms, infection control coordinator for employees at The Heart Hospital of Baylor in Plano, Texas, "We chose Stericycle's Sharps Management System using Bio Systems reusable containers to decrease the amount of bio-hazardous waste and the risk of overfilled containers to our staff. We also believe in being green," she concludes.
Another U.S. hospital commented on the use of Bio Systems reusable containers, "Our hospital's clean and green campaign has decreased the carbon footprint for our community by 41,000 pounds of plastic that did not go into the landfill last year," says Alyssa Pickles, director of infection control at Tallahassee Memorial Healthcare.
Landfill waste is a major concern; with landfills accounting for 23% of methane gas emissions in 2007. To date, Stericycle's reusable sharps program has kept more than 72 million disposable containers out of landfills, while preventing 123 million pounds of carbon from being expelled into the atmosphere and 6.3 million gallons of gas from being burned; the equivalent of a 25-mpg car driving around the Earth ten times. These numbers climb every day.
Another equally important green issue for hospitals assessing their environmental impact is pharmaceutical waste. With state laws being passed, hospitals are beginning to implement programs like the Stericycle Pharmaceutical Waste Compliance Service that enable the facility to appropriately dispose of unused or expired medications that are identified as waste so as not to get into the public waste water system.
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