Health care company Kaiser Permanente a yesterday annouced that it will require suppliers to provide environmental data for $1 billion worth of
medical equipment and products used in its hospitals, medical offices
and other facilities.
The company says its Sustainability Scorecard will be the first of its kind in health care. It will allow Kaiser Permanente to evaluate the sustainability of each medical item it purchases while also encouraging suppliers across the industry to provide greener products for the health care sector.
Kaiser Permanente spends more than $1 billion each year on medical
products. By September this year, when Kaiser Permanente’s key supply
chain partner, Broadlane, adopts the tool, the Scorecard could influence
$10 billion in medical purchasing, the company said.
Kaiser Permanente’s current environmental policies already provide
environmental guidelines for products ranging from greener cleaning
chemicals to IV tubing free of potentially harmful chemicals. The
Sustainability Scorecard goes further by requiring suppliers to provide
information on their company’s environmental commitment, use of
potentially harmful chemicals in their products and information about
product and packaging recycling.
Vice president and chief procurement officer Dean Edwards said he believes the size and influence of Kaiser Permanente has the potential to move the entire health care industry in a more environmentally-friendly direction.
Kaiser Permanente states that it is dedicated to environmental sustainability because it has direct, positive effects on individual and community health. The company recently announced plans to build 15 megawatts of solar power at its California facilities by 2011.
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The Sharps Compliance medical waste company says it has introduced a new process to convert medical waste into a raw material that can be used in construction and manufacturing.
The "Green Waste Conversion Process" turns medical syringes collected by Sharps into a sterile, raw material the company said is suitable for use in energy intensive industries like cement, lime, steel and power plants.
"Our process renders medical waste to be as sterile as sterile medical instruments," said Dr. Burton Kunik, Sharps chairman and CEO. "We´re not just reducing the amount of medical waste being sent to landfills, we´re completely eliminating it."
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