Practice Greenhealth Announces Winners of Top 25 Environmental Excellence Awards

RESTON, Va., April 18, 2017 -- Practice Greenhealth, the nation’s leading nonprofit membership and networking organization for sustainable health care, has announced the winners of its annual Top 25 Environmental Excellence Awards.

The award recognizes 25 health care facilities that exemplify the best in environmental excellence, and the highest standards for environmental practices in health care.

“Each year, we see more health care facilities recognizing the link between environmental responsibility and health–and these 25 hospitals are setting the bar for environmental performance in health care,” said Paul Bogart, Executive Director for Practice Greenhealth. “These leading hospitals continue to innovate on ways to protect and promote health through more environmentally responsible practices—and we’re excited to recognize their efforts as models for the sector.”

Award winners are chosen among hospital applicants that have the highest scores on the Greenhealth Partner for Change application. Each year, the competition for these top spots increases, as a growing number of facilities are implementing creative, sustainable and implementable practices.  

The Top 25 winners this year include:

• Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital (Downers Grove, IL)
• Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital (Barrington, IL)
• Aleda E. Lutz VA Medical Center (Saginaw, MI)
• Boston Medical Center (Boston, MA)
• Cheyenne VA Medical Center (Cheyenne, WY)
• Cleveland Clinic (Cleveland, OH)
• Erie Veterans Affairs Medical Center (Erie, PA)
• Gundersen Health System (La Crosse, WI)
• HackensackUMC of Hackensack Meridian Health (Hackensack, NJ)
• Harborview Medical Center (Seattle, WA)
• Hudson Hospital & Clinic (Hudson, WI)
• Iowa City VA Health Care System (Iowa City, IA)
• James E. Van Zandt VA Medical Center (Altoona, PA)
• Kaiser Permanente Vacaville Medical Center (Vacaville, CA)
• Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (New York, NY)
• Minneapolis VA Healthcare System (Minneapolis, MN)
• Park Nicollet Methodist Hospital (St. Louis Park, MN)
• Ralph H. Johnson VA Medical Center (Charleston, SC)
• Regions Hospital (St. Paul, MN)
• Seattle Children’s (Seattle, WA)
• Southern Arizona VA Health Care System (Tucson, AZ)
• St. Cloud VA Health Care System (St. Cloud, MN)
• The University of Vermont Medical Center (Burlington, VT)
• The University of Washington Medical Center (Seattle, WA)
• Virginia Mason Hospital & Seattle Medical Center (Seattle, WA)

The 25 hospitals presented with Practice Greenhealth's highest honors range in size from large, urban, academic medical centers to critical access hospitals—but are all leading the country in recognizing and addressing the links between the environment and human health—and have the programs, data and documentation to demonstrate their successes. These facilities have committed, engaged staff supporting these programs, and also show leadership in their local communities and across the health care sector.

Practice Greenhealth will celebrate the Top 25 Environmental Excellence Award Winners on May 18^th at the Environmental Excellence Awards Gala in Minneapolis, MN, which will bring the CleanMed 2017 Conference and Exhibition to a close. 

Practice Greenhealth will also celebrate additional winners of its Environmental Excellence Awards program at the gala, including: the Visionary Leader Award; the Circles of Excellence, the Greening the OR Leadership Award; the Greenhealth Emerald, Partner for Change and Partner Recognition Awards; the Making Medicine Mercury-Free and Greening the OR Recognition Awards; and the System for Change Award—recognizing the top health systems who are leading by example.

Learn more about the Top 25 Environmental Excellence Award Winners: https://practicegreenhealth.org/awards.

About Practice Greenhealth
Practice Greenhealth is the nation’s leading health care membership community whose mission is to transform health care worldwide so that it reduces its environmental footprint, becomes a community anchor for sustainability and is a leader in the global movement for environmental health and justice. To learn more about Practice Greenhealth visit: www.practicegreenhealth.org.

Contact:  Rose King, [email protected], 503 863 1363