2022 Sustainability Hero Award Winners!

Thank you for your applications and nominations for this year’s Sustainability Hero Awards! This annual award provides an opportunity to learn about the great work being done by employees to improve our environment. Thank you to our panel of judges for reviewing the applications. Read below to learn about this year’s winners! 

Sustainability Hero Award (Individual)  

Gold Level - Jenny Luhr, RN, Infusion Center  

Jenny was nominated for this award for setting up a specialized recycling process at Riverside 1. Jenny observed the significant waste occurring with medication shipping supplies at the Infusion Center - the shipments were being unpacked and shipping materials thrown in the trash. She identified that the company was sending a pre-paid shipping label with the delivery, which could be used to mail back the boxes, cooler, ice packs and timers to the company for recycling. With approximately 8-10 boxes received per week, each weighing anywhere between 7-18 pounds, this project will keep a lot of waste out of our landfills! Jenny is passionate about sustainability and wants to "keep the world around".  Jenny has been the Infusion Center sustainability champion for a couple of years, and is always seeking new ways to protect our environment. Thank you, Jenny for this innovative idea! 

Silver Level – Dustin Drennan, Echo  

Dustin was nominated for this award for his recycling efforts at the new Tanglewood Pediatric Center. Before the department was able to get recycling bins in place, he took it upon himself to leave a bag to collect recyclable materials from the pediatric cardiology clinic. When the bag was full, he took it on his own time to have it recycled. He also serves as the lead for the department’s Trex Soft Plastic Recycling program and is a member of the Sustainability Champions Committee. Thank you, Dustin for your time, effort, and hard work!  

Bronze Level – Dr. Lisa Uherick, Emergency Services  

Dr. Uherick was nominated for this award for her work during Earth Week 2021. Dr. Uherick led the charge to celebrate Earth Day within Emergency Services and Healthy People Heal People. Her efforts aimed to reduce waste, provide access to local foods, and increase well-being by providing all employees in the Emergency Services service line with a meal from a local restaurant and reusable cutlery, and providing each office location with an office plant. This also provided an opportunity to provide education on how environmental health relates to our well-being. Her work involved coordinating the delivery of meals to each of our ED’s and other Emergency Services locations, distributing over 1,200 sets of reusable cutlery and 40 plants, and designing and printing educational signs. Thank you for helping connect environmental health to employee health and providing this fun (and delicious) opportunity!  

Sustainability Hero Unit Award (Department)  

Gold Level – CRMH OR Services – Preop and OR Collaboration  

Surgical preoperative areas started performing preoperative shaves utilizing disposables to contain hair rather than reusable linens, in an effort to reduce contaminated instruments in the OR from hair that entered the laundry system. Instead of buying disposable sheets to perform the hair clipping, the Preop and OR departments collaborated. It was discovered that the OR staff was just throwing away blue disposable covers that covered sterile instruments. The two departments decided that instead of throwing the disposable covers away, they would collect these covers for the preop team to use during the clipping process to avoid hair getting on the linen on the stretchers. This project demonstrates commitment to sustainability by using innovative, collaborative solutions. Not only does this benefit the patient in terms of reducing contamination in sterile environments it prevents the unnecessary disposal of reusable linens and repurposes and recycles products used consistently in the OR which helps to support sustainability and reduce health care costs.   

Silver Level – CMC Endoscopy  

CMC Endoscopy demonstrates their commitment to sustainability in various ways, including:  

• Participation in the Trex Soft Plastic Recycling Program-we have recycled over 800 lbs of soft plastic since June 2021! 

• We have multiple blue bins throughout the department to recycle paper and plastic and aluminum cans. We recycle all paper including scrub cards and gown inserts because we realize a little bit can add up over time! 

• We turn off room lights, computer monitors that do not have automatic shut off, and we recently got approved to get a plug timer for our blanket warmers to shut off at night! 

• We have paper cups instead of Styrofoam, and encourage staff to bring in personal water bottles and mugs. 

• We use washcloths with cleaning solution instead of wipes to clean. 

• We keep the blinds open during the day to heat the rooms. 

• We wash and donate used patient slipper-socks to the Rescue Mission. 

• We save unused IV start-kit items such as tape. 

Thank you to this team for your dedication to sustainability and your innovative and creative ways to reduce waste and save energy!  

Bronze Level – CNRV Surgical Care Unit  

Alicia Lee CTL, RN, started a plastic film initiative to accumulate 500 lbs of plastic film (plastic bags) within 6 months. If the Surgical Care Unit achieves this goal, the plastic is then turned into a bench to be donated back to the hospital for visitors and staff to use on the hospital grounds. At this point, it's not 6 months yet from the start and the plastics accumulated so far amounts to over 250 lbs.! Though the bench might not be here yet, it's not the prize that's really meaningful- it's the collective goodwill of the unit to help the hospital environment and serve the people and patients of the community better! Also, this project is not just for one timeframe as the unit expects it will continue as a practice in the unit as it's non-intrusive, voluntary, can be replicated, and very beneficial! The plastic challenge is a simple yet superb initiative, therefore, it deserves a Sustainability Hero Award! 

Honorary Mentions  

CRCH Outpatient Surgery – Achieved for work in increasing recycling through participation in the Trex Soft Plastics Recycling program and through partnership with Sustainability on implementation of clinical plastics recycling out of the ORs.  

CNRV Environmental Services – Achieved for their dedication to keeping our environment clean and recycling of cans, bottles, batteries, and more.