UNMC and Nebraska Medicine received the Greenhealth Partner for Change Award for strong performance across a range of sustainability initiatives.
This year, the med center submitted an application for the Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence Awards, which benchmarked the campus against other medical centers nationwide.
The application process was a significant undertaking, requiring months of data collection, analysis and narrative writing. The med center received a report showing how its campus sustainability data compares to other applicants and a national summary outlining actions that peer facilities are taking to improve environmental outcomes.
The scorecard evaluated the med center’s performance across 26 metrics in 10 key areas, including waste, energy and sustainable purchasing. Each metric was scored on a percentile scale, from the lowest performers (10th percentile) to the highest (90th percentile).
The campus excelled in:
- Green cleaning: High percentage of cleaning budget spent on target green cleaning ingredients.
- Reusable products in operating rooms: Increased use of items like patient linens and surgical attire.
- Energy efficiency: Low energy use intensity, in energy per square foot.
- Water efficiency: Low gallons of water consumed per square foot.
- Sustainable purchasing: Strong percentage of budget spent on environmentally preferred products.
Opportunities for growth:
- Increase the share of electricity use coming from renewable sources.
- Further reduce emissions over time.
- Adjusting heating and cooling systems in operating rooms when they’re not in use.