Question: "I am a Facilities Manager/Educator for a 443-bed, non-profit
hospital in Pomona, CA. I am currently working on a waste reduction and
recycling program to help with our mission to become a green-friendly and
efficient facility. Since I'm in charge of planning and implementing a
hospital-wide "green" program, I could benefit from any information that
would help me to devise and implement a successful "green" program.
"
Steve’s Answer: There are three things I would suggest.
The first is to contact Hospitals for a Health Environment (H2E) which is a
nonprofit organization completely focused on greening healthcare. I think
you'll find that they have lots of valuable information. Their website is
www.h2e-online.org
As far as greening your cleaning (environmental services) you might get a
copy of our new book (Green Cleaning for Dummies). While it covers more
than just healthcare, it does a very good job laying out the basics
including a lot of the implementation issues that you will be faced with.
Finally, if you want to get into some real specific issues like developing a
green team, surveying your building, developing a plan, identifying
appropriate categories, training environmental services personnel,
communicating the message inside the facility and to the community, etc.,
these are the kinds of hands-on services that my consulting firm provides.
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