Inova Health System Honored for Environmental Leadership at System and Unit Levels

Falls Church, VA – June 9, 2016 – Inova this month received the 2016 “System for Change” Award for its system-wide environmental leadership, and the 2016 “Greenhealth Partner for Change” Awards for excellence in environmental practices at all five operating units. The awards were presented by Practice Greenhealth, the nation’s leading healthcare community dedicated to transforming health care worldwide so that it reduces its environmental footprint, becomes a community anchor for sustainability and a leader in the global movement for environmental health and justice.

The System for Change Award recognizes health systems that are working cohesively to gather data, set system goals, benchmark, and share successes in environmental performance. The Greenhealth Partner for Change Award recognizes health care facilities that continuously improve and expand upon their mercury elimination, waste reduction, recycling and source reduction programs. At a minimum, facilities applying for this award must be recycling 15 percent of their total waste, have reduced regulated medical waste, are well along the way to mercury elimination, and have developed other successful pollution prevention programs in many different areas.

“At both the system and unit level, Inova strives to make a difference in our hospitals’ communities by setting goals, monitoring our sustainability progress, and collecting data that can demonstrate our success,” said Seem Wadhwa, Assistant Vice President of Sustainability and Wellness at Inova. “As a result, we are not only improving the health of our patients, staff, and communities, we’re also saving our environment and saving money—savings that can help lower costs for our patients across all our service areas.”

Specific achievements that led to Inova receiving this award include:
• A reduction in system-wide energy use intensity of 3% in the last year and almost 12% from 2012.
• A continued, system-wide reduction in regulated medical waste generated that includes an 8% reduction at the Fairfax Medical Campus since 2013.
• A focus on sustainable and healthy food purchases including antibiotic-free poultry, caged-free eggs and local produce.

The Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence Awards were presented in Dallas, Texas, May 19 at the CleanMed Conference & Exhibition, THE premier national environmental conference for leaders in health care sustainability.

Media Contact: Tracy Connell, tracy.connell@inova.org

# # #About Practice Greenhealth:
Practice Greenhealth is the nation’s leading health care community dedicated to transforming health care worldwide so that it reduces its environmental footprint, becomes a community anchor for sustainability and a leader in the global movement for environmental health and justice. To learn more about Practice Greenhealth visit www.practicegreenhealth.org.