Meet This Year's Sustainability Award Winners

We are proud to recognize the winners of the 2026 Sustainability Leadership Awards. These awards honor departments and individuals who are making a meaningful difference in reducing our environmental impact.

SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP TEAM AWARDS

GOLD: Contrast Agent Waste Reduction Project Team

In 2025, Imaging Services demonstrated exceptional sustainability leadership by transitioning to multi‑dose vials and implementing weight‑based dosing to improve patient care while dramatically reducing waste. Through strong collaboration among radiology leadership, quality and project management, CT and MRI leaders, supply chain, and pharmacy partners, the team eliminated an estimated 600,000 mL of contrast waste annually, resulting in approximately $63,000 in direct cost savings. This project reduces incinerated waste, decreases glass vial disposal by up to 80%. It also conserves iodine—a scarce global resource. This impactful, data‑driven initiative seamlessly aligns clinical excellence with environmental stewardship.

SILVER: Carilion Family Medicine – Blacksburg Plantation

In February, Carilion Family Medicine – Blacksburg Plantation replaced printed Epic patient snapshots with reusable whiteboards for rooming patients, eliminating the need to print approximately 1,000 pages per day. Previously, this process generated about 50 pounds of paper waste per week. A one-time minimal investment in whiteboards for all exam rooms has resulted in ongoing cost savings, reduced environmental impact, and improved efficiency. This change also lowers the risk of HIPAA violations by eliminating misplaced paperwork and reduces desk clutter, contributing to a more organized and less stressful work environment for clinicians.

BRONZE: Peer Reference Electronic Conversion Team

This project modernized our long‑standing provider recredentialing peer reference process by transitioning it from paper-based forms to a fully electronic workflow. Replacing a process that had been in place for at least 18 years, the initiative eliminated the need to print, distribute, and scan thousands of pages each year—reducing paper use by an estimated 9,200 to 101,900 sheets annually. The change significantly lowered environmental impact, improved efficiency and security, and created a sustainable, scalable administrative model that delivers ongoing benefits while supporting our broader commitment to environmental stewardship and operational improvement. Additionally, it has reduced the average time to return from 12.9 to 4.1 days, and the request for corrections rate from 8% to less than 1%.

SUSTAINABILITY LEADERSHIP INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

GOLD: Jacob Gillen, MD, Trauma/Critical Care Surgery

Dr. Jacob Gillen has played a key leadership role in advancing sustainability within our organization by championing system-wide operating room initiatives to reduce disposable supply waste. Through standardized protocols requiring surgeon approval and just‑in‑time opening of supplies, his efforts—alongside other waste‑reduction strategies—have contributed to $3 million in year‑to‑date savings on disposable surgical supplies. In 2024, Dr. Gillen founded and led a multidisciplinary Greening the OR Sustainability Group, engaged clinicians and leaders through sustainability‑focused grand rounds, and represented Carilion nationally as a speaker at the CleanMed conference. His leadership has elevated the physician voice and strengthened the credibility and impact of sustainability programming across the organization.

SILVER: Denene Hannon, Neurosurgery

Denene Hannon led a project to address improper use of regulated medical waste (RMW) containers in orthopaedic exam rooms, where red bins were frequently filled with non‑RMW items such as regular trash and diapers. After cross‑departmental coordination, 78 red bins were removed, with an initial audit revealing that only 5 contained appropriate RMW—confirming widespread misuse and validating the intervention. Ongoing disposal of RMW continues via red bags stored in cabinets and centralized collection in soiled utility rooms. Waste data collected after implementation demonstrated a measurable reduction in RMW volume, supporting an estimated diversion of 978 pounds of waste annually, approximately $1,000 in yearly cost savings, and a reduction of 0.24 metric tons of CO₂e emissions per year—equivalent to about 611 miles driven. The analysis confirmed that removing point‑of‑use red bins reduced both unnecessary RMW disposal and environmental impact while maintaining regulatory compliance.

BRONZE – Kaitlyn Costa, Institute for Orthopaedics and Neurosciences

In 2024, Kaitlyn Costa led sustainability efforts at the Institute for Orthopaedics and Neurosciences by pursuing and successfully achieving the Gold Level Greening the Office Award across a complex, 116,000‑square‑foot ambulatory facility with 6 clinical departments. Through a collaborative, servant‑leader approach, she fostered engagement across departments, provided ongoing sustainability updates at operations meetings, and helped scale individual departmental initiatives into facility‑wide practices. Under her leadership, projects such as a Ronald McDonald House tab collection program, soft plastic recycling expansion, and removal of misused medical waste bins were implemented and shared across clinics. Kaitlyn’s coordination, communication, and ability to empower teams transformed a single application into sustained, growing sustainability momentum, demonstrating strong leadership and measurable impact.