Main description:

The relationship between hospitals and the environment is defined by a glaring contradiction: as health care facilities deliver care at any cost, their environmental footprint - pollution, waste production, unsustainable food services - contributes to harming community health.

Greening Health Care examines the intersections of health care and environmental health, both in terms of traditional failures and the revolution underway to fix them. Authored by one of the pioneers in health care's green movement, it presents practical solutions for health care organizations and clinicians to improve their environments and the health of their communities. Topics include: making food services sustainable, managing hospital waste, and relevant impacts/mitigating
measures related to climate change.

As environmental protection grows into an imperative for all aspects of society, Greening Health Care offers an historical and practical approach to sustainable health care delivery.

Contents:

Preface ; Acknowledgements ; About the Author ; 1. Launching a Green Revolution in Health Care ; 2. The Health Implications of Climate Change ; 3. The Business Case for Total Health ; 4. Food for Health ; 5. Managing and Minimizing Hospital Waste ; 6. Green Chemicals and the Detoxing of Health Care ; 7. Environmentally Preferable Purchasing: What We Buy Matters ; 8. Greening the Built Health Care Environment ; 9. Measuring and Reporting: Sustainability Gets Sophisticated ; 10. Community Benefit and the Determinants of Health