The San Juan Regional Medical Center has been actively working on reducing its carbon footprint since 2007, a hospital officials says, resulting in a reduction of 200 tons of waste taken to the landfill each year聽and a total savings of $2 million聽to the hospital. Marketing Manager Roberta Rogers said the reprocessing program has been so effective that the hospital hopes to become a model for other organizations聽wishing to follow suit. 鈥淗ospitals are major energy users, so it鈥檚 important that we reduce our carbon footprint,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檇 like to help by sharing our experience with others in the community who want to become better corporate citizens.鈥�
To reach its waste-reduction goals, the hospital established what it calls the Green Team in 2007, which is a group of hospital employees that meets quarterly to discuss waste-reduction ideas.
Those efforts have been so successful that, in April, the hospital received the 2016 Governor鈥檚 Environmental Excellence Award, receiving second place in the Resource Stewardship category, which recognizes projects that reduce hazardous and solid waste, manage sustainable materials, and demonstrate energy conservation, Rogers said.
Dave Turnbull, the medical center鈥檚 purchasing and receiving manager, explained how the Green Team came together, and how it changed the way the hospital deals with waste and improves聽energy efficiency.
鈥淲e came up with the goal of reducing waste going into the landfill by 30 percent, and we have consistently met that goal for the last four years,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat equates to about 425,000 reusable pounds of waste a year that doesn鈥檛 end up in the landfill.鈥�
Working with Farmington Waste Management, Turnbull said the hospital has equipped each hospital department with several recycling/reprocessing bins to collect different types of waste. Bins are also placed in public areas of the hospital, so people visiting patients can participate in recycling efforts. The materials collected for reprocessing include batteries, shredded documents and cardboard, as well as single-stream recycling items such as aluminum cans.
Even food is being reprocessed. The hospital delivers composted food waste to the New Mexico State University Agricultural Science Center located 10 miles south of Farmington.
Making the hospital more energy efficient is also integral to the Green Team鈥檚 mission, said Suzanne Gil, the medical center鈥檚 clinical resource manager.
鈥淲e recently replaced light bulbs with LED lights聽and are now using HD monitoring screens for laparoscopic surgeries, which is a huge energy savings,鈥� said Gil, adding that the lighting is also being equipped with movement sensors so lights will automatically turn off when not needed.
Gil said the Green Team does not operate in a vacuum, and is actively soliciting suggestions from other hospital employees and the public on ways to save energy and reduce waste.
鈥淭he staff is totally on board 鈥斅爓e鈥檙e getting a lot of participation and ideas from them,鈥� she said, adding that the hospital is currently focusing on how to reprocess 鈥渂lue wraps,鈥� which are used to wrap up medical instruments in the operating room and are then discarded.
An integral part of the hospital鈥檚 efforts to become more energy efficient is a 6,000-panel solar farm currently under construction. It is聽projected to be operational in 2017. 鈥淲e鈥檙e really excited about the solar field,鈥� Turnbull said. 鈥淭hat was a great Green Team initiative and will result in significant savings.”
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