Shaw is spotlighting organizations making a positive impact through initiatives that support the wellbeing of people and the planet. Here, we discuss a new sustainability initiative led by three of the most influential organizations working to transform health care: Health Care Without Harm, Practice Greenhealth and Greenhealth Exchange.
Health Care Without Harm is a coalition that
represents healthcare organizations, companies, and others that aim for healthcare to exemplify a sector's moral responsibility and mission to address its own
environmental footprint; as well as become leaders in society in supporting a
sustainable economy and healthy communities. Practice
Greenhealth is the nation's leading
membership and networking organization for organizations in the healthcare
community that have made a commitment to sustainable practices. Greenhealth
Exchange — a purchasing cooperative
created by Practice Greenhealth, Health Care Without Harm and leading health
systems committed to sustainability — makes buying products and services that
are good for people, the planet and the bottom line much easier.
In a conversation with Thresa
Pattee,
director of sustainability at Greenhealth Exchange, we learned more about how
the healthcare industry keeps focused on sustainability during a global
pandemic; and about the newly launched Greenhealth
Approved initiative, a collaboration between
Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth.
How has the pandemic affected Health Care Without Harm’s efforts — including your initiatives and interactions with the health facilities you work with?
Thresa Pattee: During the pandemic, Health Care Without Harm has been a
resource for the healthcare industry as they navigate this dynamic situation.
For example, reacting to the spread and overcrowded hospitals, some facilities
or systems are starting to look and explore whether or not the addition, or
re-addition, of antimicrobials in furnishing and building products is an
appropriate way to move forward. In August of this year, Health Care Without
Harm released a new report, Antimicrobials and COVID-19: What hospitals need to
know,
that built on our antimicrobials guidance originally published in 2016. The
report reviewed the latest science about the virus, current safety protocols,
the potential risks from using antimicrobials; and offered recommendations to
our purchasers and the healthcare community.
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The latest research continued to find that the addition of antimicrobials to
many products was unproven, as to whether or not it had significantly reduced
infection rates. So, we've seen healthcare leaders look to us as a resource
around reducing chemicals of concern and understanding the implications of
decisions being made during these unprecedented times.
You’ve partnered with Practice Greenhealth on a number of initiatives. Tell us about that.
TP: Collaborating with Practice Greenhealth creates an opportunity to
convene thought leaders in the health space to share their challenges and best
practices as they wrestle with supply chain shortages and concerns over rising
waste. We want to provide the resources to make smart purchasing decisions that
really further their resilience and sustainability goals. We've begun to
research key considerations in sourcing reusable products and determine how to
address sustainability and avoid key chemicals of concern when looking at those
products.
We’ve also partnered with Practice Greenhealth to create Greenhealth Approved — a
new industry-wide criteria and label to help healthcare providers make smart
purchasing decisions that advance their sustainability goals while protecting
patients, visitors and staff.
Tell us more about that new program.
TP: In launching Greenhealth Approved, we focused first on the long-term
work that Health Care Without Harm has done to address chemicals of concern.
That allowed us to bring our work in medical products, resilient flooring and carpet under the Greenhealth Approved seal in August. We have
extensive experience within furnishings and interiors and we will be introducing
these categories under this seal in early 2021.
The criteria drive back to Health Care Without Harm’s resources where
information on why we operationalize these specific sets of criteria into the
built environment or into medical products is provided. All of the criteria that
are part of Greenhealth Approved are developed with deep collaboration from the
experts within our own organization, our partner organizations, and suppliers in
the community — such as Shaw, who we worked with on our carpeting criteria in
2019 and resilient flooring criteria in 2018.
Suppliers and purchasers can go to
greenhealthapproved.org to get answers to
frequently asked questions and learn about the seal.
What are some of the most common concerns that you hear from healthcare facilities that prevent them from adopting more sustainable processes?
TP: One of the most common, and maybe foundational grounding issues, is
really just making the case for sustainability initiatives.
Another concern we see that ties to the reason we brought the Greenhealth
Approved seal to the market are challenges around product transparency and
issues with tracking purchases to understand progress and impact within our
healthcare systems and facilities. It is often difficult to understand what
products either have sustainable attributes or meet specific criteria. We've
seen a lot of our partner healthcare organizations develop in-house ways to
delineate these products, or set up their own systems to try to understand how
they can make purchases that match up with certain criteria and requirements as
well as understand progress over time. Practice Greenhealth lays the foundation
aimed at making the case for sustainability, aligning that case with health
care’s mission, and then operationalizing changes in the healthcare setting. The
seal provides one extra layer of utility helping people find products that
support their initiatives.
Even with challenges, there is so much energy and movement around
sustainability. Within our partnership network, we see hospitals working with
each other every day to solve challenges, remove roadblocks and share best
practices. We recently opened our Industry Partnership
opportunity
to involve businesses, other non-profits, and universities — really, anybody who
shares our mission and wants to be part of this movement to improve
sustainability in healthcare and to make a more livable world in the
long term. We see healthcare suppliers coming together to get a shared
understanding of the sustainability needs of products and how products can be
improved or changed to meet environmental requirements. We've also started to
see universities begin to build the connection between human and
environmental health within their curriculum for their doctor and clinician
students.
It’s such an exciting space to work in, because the collaboration really bolsters
us. Every day, we see positive effects, as well as opportunities to educate and
impact the world.
What do you see as the most pressing issue to focus on in the next few years?
TP: There are so many pressing issues, making it difficult to highlight a
single challenge. But, one of the things that we talk a lot about as an
organization and hear about from our healthcare partners and supplier
communities is translating the lessons we’re learning from COVID-19 to improve
the resilience of our healthcare systems and our communities. We expect to see
crises continue to increase in the future, especially those due to climate
change. Healthcare can take the lead on this and create more sustainable and
resilient communities.
One example we've seen is our healthcare partners increasingly scrutinizing
their supply chain, looking at production of critical supplies and how to move
those back to domestic shores. They are evaluating how to help manufacturers
retool to meet demands, and how to get ownership of their supply chain so they
can advocate for sustainability in the products they purchase. If healthcare
purchases supplies domestically, they can make sure that production practices
are not further externalizing damage onto the communities they serve.
I think we're going to see continued demand for products that do not have
negative health impacts, both at the point of use for the patient and within the
communities they're produced in or serviced in.
One of the key underpinnings of all this is really a more widespread
understanding of how low-income communities and communities of color really
experience disproportionate health effects from illnesses, like COVID-19, and
climate
change.
We need to hone in on the lessons we're learning. Trying to get uninterrupted
supply chains, understanding the value of having products made within our own
communities and how procurement can address some of the underlying social
determinants of health through supplier diversity goals. Also, making sure
they're trying to support local manufacturing and thinking about how those
products are manufactured, while investing in community benefit activities to
help those that have been identified as the most vulnerable from COVID-19 to
live in better and healthier communities.
Our president and founder, Gary Cohen, said it best when he said: “The COVID-19
pandemic is exposing all the cracks in our safetynet system — all the economic,
racial and social inequities, specifically. And we need to provide relief to
those in distress in our communities.We need to provide mental and social
support to vulnerable people who are already struggling to live and whose lives
will be fundamentally threatened over the months to come.”
The more we can learn from these events, the more resilient our communities will
be and the better prepared we're going to be to weather future crises.
This article is one in a series of articles recognizing 10 diverse organizations intently focused on products and initiatives that support the wellbeing of people and the planet, as part of Shaw’s sustain[HUMAN]ability™ recognition program. To read more about the other organizations recognized by Shaw for their efforts, visit the landing page for this blog series.
Published Dec 3, 2020 1pm EST / 10am PST / 6pm GMT / 7pm CET
Vice President of Global Sustainability & Innovation
Shaw Industries
Kellie Ballew is the VP of Global Sustainability for Shaw Industries Group, Inc. — a global provider of sustainable floor coverings and the world’s largest carpet manufacturer. A 25-year company veteran, Kellie has a long history of partnering with Shaw leaders to leverage market insights and technical expertise to inform, influence, and support business decisions.
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