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.

Overcoming the Power Crisis

The solution to power crisis can be making use of alternative sources of energy like solar and wind energy. Especially in a country like India were frequent power cuts is common, the power cuts during the summer season vary from anywhere between 4-12 hours a day, the rural areas experiencing the highest power cut of around 12 hrs a day. It’s time that someone gave a serious thought to the solution for this crisis. By adopting solar energy, the rural people can benefit as they have an abundance of sunlight and space, they can install these solar panels on their rooftops or even near their fields for agricultural purpose and generate their own power. In this manner they will be fulfilling their needs and any excess power can also be sold to the grid at a fixed rate, by this they along with the government will be mutually benefited.

The only hurdle to more people adopting alternative sources of energy might be due to the lack of awareness and sufficient economic resources. The government by taking certain steps can help in creating awareness among people by conducting campaigns in different areas and at the same time they can also help the common man by providing the required solar panels and other resources at a subsidized rate or by providing loans at a cheaper interest rate. With the ever growing population in India meeting the demands of basic necessities has become a task, in such a scenario promoting alternative sources of energy should be taken up in a big way to meet the demand. In a country like Germany, one can see that all the rooftops are covered with solar panels where solar energy is hugely used; this shows the practical thinking of the Germans. It is high time that people in India think practically and put this into action.