2024 Sustainability Hero Award Winners!

Thank you to everyone who submitted applications and nominations for our 2024 Sustainability Hero Awards! Each year, these awards provide an opportunity for us to highlight the amazing work individuals and departments from across the organization are doing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve energy, reduce waste, and improve the health of our environment, and therefore, our patients and communities. This year, we are pleased to announce the following winners:  

Sustainability Hero Unit Award (department/team award) 

Gold Award – Department of Anesthesia, led by Dr. Neil Macdonald  

With the support, guidance, and leadership of Dr. Neil Macdonald, Medical Director and Chair, the Department of Anesthesiology has been working hard to reduce Carilion’s greenhouse gas emissions from anesthetic waste gases since 2021. 

Some of the tactics for reduction include: 

• Utilizing the tools on their new, state-of-the-art anesthesia machines to help maximize efficient anesthetic delivery for each case.  

• Data tracking, speaking in orientation, presenting in departmental meetings to increase provider awareness of the GHG emissions associated with anesthetic gases. 

• Monthly meeting with Anesthesia leadership, Sustainability and Gergana Picard from Perioperative Clinical Informatics, to review, analyze and refine purchasing and utilization data, review case studies, webinars, and connect with experts in the field to expand knowledge of best practices across the country. 

In the first two years, this work led to a reduction of 1,282 mtCO2e, a 39% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from anesthetic gases over baseline year 2021. These avoided emissions are the equivalent to greenhouse gas emissions from 305 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year, or the electricity use for 253 homes for one year. 

Silver Award – Carilion Giles Community Hospital’s Engineering & Maintenance Department  

With the leadership of Scott Blankenship, Senior Director, Don Mullins, Engineering & Maintenance Manager, and Jamie Burton, HVAC Maintenance Specialist, the Carilion Giles Community Hospital Engineering and Maintenance Department have been instrumental in implementing strategies to enhance efficiency and diminish energy consumption and emissions in their facility. 

Additionally, there was collaboration with regional teams at CNRV who assisted in installing the lights, contributing significantly to the successful implementation of the energy-saving initiatives; as well as Administration at Giles, specifically Kristie Williams, Giles Vice President, who championed these key initiatives and advocated for the removal of space heaters, which significantly contributed to our success in achieving our energy-saving goals. 

Some of the tactics employed for energy reduction include: 

• LED Retrofit: LEDs consume significantly less energy compared to traditional lighting, resulting in substantial energy savings.  

• Heating/Cooling Setpoints: Optimization of heating and cooling setpoints to ensure energy is used efficiently. 

• Space Heater Removal: Elimination of space heaters to promote energy conservation and improve safety. 

• Educational Initiatives: Partnering with administration to provide staff education, elucidating the rationale behind the changes and empowering them to address temperature concerns effectively. 

The collective effect of these initiatives resulted in a 315,360 kWh reduction in electricity consumption for 2023 compared to 2022. This reduction is equivalent to eliminating the greenhouse gas emissions produced by 52 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles for an entire year! 

Bronze Award – Center for Simulation, Research, and Patient Safety  

Led by the efforts of Robert Hedge, Simulation Lab Education Facilitator, this department has worked hard to repurpose and reuse medical supplies and equipment for educational purposes. When medical supplies expire, they can no longer be used in patient care, but they can be used for education. The department receives a large number of donations to use for training purposes from Carilion hospitals and clinic sites, and they look through all of these donations to identify supplies that can be repurposed. The Simulation Center has also been a valued partner in the Mission Donation program, by utilizing the items collected through this program at the facility. The team also encourages the repurposing of supplies (such as sterile buckets that are no longer sterile, OR drapes and towels, etc.) to be used for projects within the department.  

Robert, and subsequently the entire department, are very aware of the need to reuse and recycle medical supplies and equipment for the purposes of training our clinicians. By taking steps to utilize donations in their educational programs, they are not only saving the organization money, but also preventing perfectly good and unused items from being disposed of.  

Sustainability Hero Award (individual award) 

Gold Award – Dan Cohen, Education & Organizational Development 

Dan has made a huge contribution to Carilion’s sustainability work, both at the organization level and at the departmental level. He has been a dedicated member of the Sustainability Champions Committee for multiple years and was key member of the Administrative Subcommittee and contributor to the development of the Greening the Office program. He has volunteered at multiple electronic recycling events and most recently organized a tree planting event with Carilion and the City of Roanoke. Within Education & Organizational Development (E&OD), Dan founded the Green Team, which has worked on numerous projects including litter cleanups, recycling soft-plastics, educational lunch and learns, and including sustainability tips in the monthly newsletter. He also led the effort to achieve the Gold-Level Green Office Certification for the CTDC.  

From the nomination: Dan's development and leadership of the Green Team has made huge strides in a short period of time. Dan’s continued leadership on these initiatives has allowed the team to grow, incorporate new ideas, and continue to help develop better practices from both employees that work in and the many students that come through the CTDC every day. 

Silver Award – Katie Martin – NICU, CRMH   

Katie has been the sole sustainability champion in the NICU (the largest inpatient unit in Carilion) for the past 3 years, and she has made a huge impact in bringing a culture of sustainability to the unit.  She has collected, sorted, and weighed more than 1,600 pounds of plastic for the Trex soft-plastics recycling program and she also collects tab tops for the Ronald McDonald House (she has donated over 207 pounds!) and sorts recycling in all the pods.  

Katie coaches and encourages other staff to recycle and helps determine where to deposit a recyclable item, inspiring others to do their part for the health of the planet.  Katie is a true Sustainability Hero and you can often find her digging through the trash, looking for paper and plastic to keep out of landfills. 

From the nomination: Katie's efforts have helped raise awareness about the value of recycling here at work.  On any given day you can walk around the NICU and see people collecting plastics to be placed in the recycling bag, rinsing plastic containers, and breaking down paperboard boxes.  Each person is empowered to contribute to the recycling effort led by Katie Martin! 

Bronze Award – LeVita Washington – 6 South PACU, CRMH  

 LeVita has been instrumental in getting her unit (and numerous other units!) to recycle soft-plastics. LeVita educates and encourages others and champions the project. Her work led the department to recycling 1,000 pounds of plastic within 7 months! And even though they have achieved their goal of 1,000 pounds, she continues recycling. She also connected other units to the Sustainability department to get them involved in recycling soft plastics. LeVita’s dedication to soft-plastics recycling has helped Carilion reduce the amount of waste we dispose of in Virginia landfills.  

From the nomination: LeVita was the head runner for the plastic bench project our unit (CVI PACU) participated in. She setup plastic collection locations in all bays and reached out to EVS and fellow patient care techs to have plastic recycled. She encouraged other units to participate and collect their plastic. She was an advocate for continuing the collection/recycling even after we collected enough to have a bench created. All in all, she is amazing! It was deserving of a sustainability hero award because without LeVita, our unit would not have been held accountable for saving plastic. 

Thank you again to all who submitted applications. Applications will open again mid-February, 2025.