2021 Sustainability Hero Awards Winners!

We are an organization made up of individuals COMMITTED to sustainability! Thank you to everyone who applied for the 2021 Sustainability Hero Awards and to our panel of judges. Read about the winners below.

Sustainability Hero Unit Awards

Platinum - Carilion Franklin Memorial Hospital Maintenance Department

Energy Reduction

This team is actively working to reduce the hospital’s energy use. In the years prior to 2013, the hospital used an average of 63,850 gallons of #2 fuel oil a year to operate our boilers. Since then, the annual fuel usage has dropped to 44,852 gallons, a drop of 29.7%. This was accomplished by reducing the overall steam pressure in the building, utilizing the controls on the boilers to better manage their efficiency, and repairing leaking components in the building steam system. In the past 6 months, Maintenance has also begun a 3-year project of updating all lights in the hospital to LED. This involves either changing out entire fixtures or using available retro kits to upgrade our current lighting systems. With time, the entire hospital will be converted to LED fixtures and this will reduce the building’s energy usage even more.

Benefits of this work include lower operating costs, positive community opinion as they see the hospital and Carilion being more environmentally responsible, decreasing emissions and natural resource utilization, and these efforts warrant the potential to earn the prestigious "Energy Star" rating for the hospital.

Gold - Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital – 10 Mountain PCU

Pulse Oximeter Waste Reduction

10 MPCU led a project to improve sustainability and cost savings through a pulse oximetry related product change. It was identified that pulse oximetry probes were the most expensive item in the unit’s non-billable supply budget. Unit leadership met with a product representative, and the group identified inefficiency and waste resulting from the current process of replacing the probe whenever the probe came off the patient or was soiled. The Replacement Adhesive Tape was proposed as a potential solution. The replacement tapes are utilized in replacing only the adhesive portion of the SpO2 probe when removed, rather than replacing the entire probe.

Implementation of the replacement tapes started in the last week of August. The project has saved an average of $1,711 per month since implementation. In November alone, the unit reduced the number of probes they utilized by 62.3%! The calculated amount of waste diverted in the first three months was 20.49 lb. with an average of 6.83 lb. diverted per month.

Bronze – Endoscopy Department

Recycling, Waste Reduction, Cost Savings and More!

This team is dedicated to sustainability and has various programs in place to reduce waste and costs. These include recycling, donating soft plastics to local organizations to be recycled for park benches, educating staff on what can be recycled (specifically things you may not typically think of), energy conservation efforts, adjusting linen, food supply, and instrument supply par levels to reduce unnecessary overstocking, labeling of procedural instruments that may be commonly mistaken for other instruments to prevent accidentally opening (and then wasting) the wrong item, using washcloths instead of disposable wipes, reprocessing pulse oximeters, emailing work schedules to staff to prevent multiple printouts, using reusable monogrammed mugs provided by the director to avoid use of disposable cups, draining IV fluid bags to decrease the weight and volume of trash, wearing reusable cloth bonnets instead of disposable ones, and ongoing research for additional ways to be more sustainable. Wow!

Sustainability Hero Individual Awards

Platinum - Mary Dillon, RN – CRMH Pediatric ICU

Soft-Plastics Recycling

Mary began a soft-plastics recycling program on Peds and PICU in May of 2017. She is close to a total of 1,500 lbs of plastic that she has diverted from the landfill and recycled. She collects the plastic, weighs it, and takes it to the local retailers for recycling. Not only does this work help keep plastics out of our landfills but also reduces costs by avoided waste disposal fees. Her passion has inspired many others to participate in this community project.

Gold – Daniel Kolasa – CNRV Interventional Radiology

Bee Healthy Apiary

Daniel Kolasa started the Bee Healthy Apiary, a small apiary on the grounds of Carilion New River Valley Hospital which is funded by the Carillion Clinic Foundation. Funding started in the Summer of 2019 and work on the apiary began in Spring 2020. At that time, the apiary was built, including a bear fence and two hives. The apiary is tended to at least every two weeks and it is anticipated that the apiary will grow to be three hives and that honey will be extracted this year! The project is designed to support the health of the local community by adding pollinators into the environment. The hope is to sell products (candles, wax, etc.) from the apiary in the future to support its operations.

Bronze– Christopher McClanahan – CRMH 6th Floor Guest Services

Energy Conservation and Recycling

Peer nomination: “Christopher is very aware of helping the environment. Small things such as, when no one is in the waiting rooms on the 6th floor, he turns off the lights and makes sure that the lights are dim at the desk area. He continually recycles plastic and paper. With as much traffic that comes into the waiting rooms, to be aware that you can save the hospital money for electricity and serve guests with outstanding service is no small feat. One small step from man and one big step for the environment.”