Congratulations to our 2025 Sustainability Hero Award Winners!

Thank you to all who applied for our 2025 Sustainability Hero Awards! These awards provide us with an opportunity each year to recognize and celebrate individuals and departments for the work they are doing to promote environmental sustainability at Carilion Clinic.

Read about the 2025 winners below:  

GOLD – Sustainability Hero Department Award  

Carilion Clinic Endoscopy Department  

The Endoscopy department has been working to implement new equipment which greatly reduces the amount of Regulated Medical Waste (RMW) generated. As part of this project, the new equipment was implemented at CRMH, CFMH, CRCH and CNRV. The new equipment eliminates the use of suction canisters (plastic canisters filled with bodily fluids and a solidifier) which after cases had to be disposed of as RMW. RMW is autoclaved and then sent to an RMW landfill. This implementation and elimination of the suction canister waste is projected to lead to a decrease of approximately 27,900 pounds of regulated medical waste system-wide per year.

At each hospital location, the regulated medical waste volumes are being reduced by the following percentages:  

• CFMH: 29% 

• CNRV: 9.5% 

• CMC (CRCH & CRMH): 5.6% 

Healthcare sustainability is about finding opportunities to reduce waste, while not compromising the safety or quality of patient care, and the endoscopy team has done this through this project. Though Carilion's RMW waste is properly managed to reduce its impact on the environment, it is still ultimately sent to an RMW landfill. This project reduces the quantity of waste Carilion is contributing to the overall healthcare waste footprint. 

SILVER – SUTAINABILITY HERO DEPARTMENT AWARD  

Carilion Clinic Rheumatology  

The Rheumatology team worked with TSG’s Dustin Rasnick and other TSG colleagues to setup a process which automatically routes patient information directly into Epic without having to print and transport for upload with Patterson Pope. This has saved a tremendous amount of paper, printer and transportation costs! Prior to this process, the department would have to print approximately 400 pages per day, which would be about 100,000 pages per year!  

This team demonstrated Carilion’s values of curiosity and collaboration by being the first practice within Carilion to try this process at this level, and because of their success and willingness to try, it is now being considered for multiple other practices within the Department of Medicine. The curiosity of the team in seeking solutions that work better for their team/patients, expedite care through quicker access to information, and also saves expense and resources is worth celebrating and recognizing!  

GOLD – SUSTAINABILITY HERO AWARD  

Clarence Walker, CRMH Environmental Services  

Clarence Walker is part of the Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital (CRMH) Environmental Services team. He is the primary recycling technician at the facility who is responsible for moving multiple recycling streams through the building. He picks up single-stream recycling (blue bins that collect cans, bottles, paper, and boxboard) and batteries from throughout the entire building of CRMH!

To add some context to the amount of material, in 2024, CRMH recycled:  

• 141,024 pounds of mixed materials  

• 18,715 pounds of batteries  

• 483,520 pounds of cardboard  

Though Clarence is a part of a larger team that helps move these materials, he plays a pivotal role in these programs. Not only does he pick these items up, but he is also committed to ensuring the success of the program by communicating to the Sustainability Department when the containers on the dock are full, not being serviced, or need to be replaced. He also connects with Sustainability when new departments are interested in starting recycling collections.