Healthcare Sustainability Blog Series
Part 4 of 4: Reporting
Nicole Chardoul
RRS Vice President
Congratulations! You have completed your program assessment, planned short- and long-term priority implementation, and you have implemented a project or two. Now it’s time to report and communicate your successes.
Based on the key metric you set in the planning phase, once you implement and operate your program for a period of time, you should have the data to measure its impact. Maybe it’s that reusable sharps container program. You can work with your vendor to report out on cost savings and tons of avoided plastic to the autoclave and landfill. Or, maybe you implemented an LED retrofit project and after a full season, you can compare cost and kilowatts used against the same period of time in previous years.
These are successes that you want to share with leadership for continued program support and expansion. You can also use these metrics to enter into competitions and award programs such as Energy Star, Battle of the Buildings, Practice Greenhealth awards, and more. These award programs give your organization some green bragging rights and show your community that you are serious about sustainability.
Just as important is to communicate your progress internally through your green team champions, organizational newsletters, and employee emails – let your colleagues see the important work they are doing to be green and saving a bit of green too!
Lastly, if there are opportunities to engage with community partners such as your local service providers and suppliers, your community health clinics, your local funders, and other local institutions and non-profits, then you can take one step closer to achieving circular economy of healthcare and doing the true work of sustainability.
Now, just keep the cycle going – the work is never done. Start at any point in the process, re-assess, and continuously improve.
Did you miss the first three parts of the series? Check them out here:
- Part 1 Assessment
- Part 2 Planning
- Part 3 Implementation