Health Care Sustainability

Efforts to improve sustainability in health care have great advantages like promoting heath care, cutting costs, motivating the staff and encouraging community based health care. Every health care center produces a huge amount of carbon dioxide and other particulate matter into the air which is inhaled by all the patients and the staff due to which it is very important to adapt energy saving technologies. By conducting an energy audit we can become aware of all the available opportunities to save energy, like changing the lighting fixtures to energy saving fixtures, maintaining the heating and cooling systems in an efficient manner to increase their efficiency and save energy. Also partnering with the local authorities to tap renewable energy by renewing the waste gases to energy, also entering the solar and wind energy market and recycling the used cardboard, paper, wood and other waste material will greatly help in improving sustainability in health care.

Health care centers have an unusually large environmental footprint wherein they contribute to a major part of the waste generated, and are the major producers of greenhouse gas emissions and spend the most on energy. The high quantity of waste generated by the Health centers will in turn aid in the spreading of diseases and raise the costs of managing healthcare centers due to the rising usage and spending towards food, water and energy. Improving the indoor environment of a hospital by using quality ecological practices with positive outcomes with regards to health should be the main principle of sustainability. Care should be taken in the architectural finishes, usage of material and open green spaces while designing an energy efficient health care center. Effective waste management should be the main objective of all the health care centers, as effective management and usage of waste will help in reducing the energy costs at the same time making use of the waste for renewable energy and recycling products which help in changing Health Care.