Practice Greenhealth Honors St. Joseph’s with Green Awards

STOCKTON, Calif. — Practice Greenhealth, a national health care solution organization, awarded St. Joseph’s Medical Center, located in Stockton, the Partner for Change Award and the Greening the OR Recognition Award on April 25. The awards recognized St. Joseph’s achievements in environmental sustainability in the health care sector.

Practice Greenhealth’s Partner for Change Award is given to health care facilities that continuously improve and expand programs to eliminate mercury, reduce and recycle waste, source products sustainably and more. Similarly, the Greening the OR Recognition Award recognizes health care facilities that reduce environmental impact on the part of their surgical departments, and St. Joseph’s has accomplished both. The medical center was honored by Practice Greenhealth this year for the more than 16 million pounds of waste it has recycled since 2008, ranking St. Joseph’s as second highest recycler within the Dignity Health system.

Additionally, St. Joseph’s has an ecology program that focuses on waste reduction and includes an on-site laundry facility for reusable medical garments. This program alone has kept more than 7 million pounds of waste from landfills. The hospital also has a 33,000-square foot garden, which produces enough food to donate 220 pounds of produce weekly to local shelters. The amount of food being produced annually by St. Joseph’s is the equivalent to distributing 377,000 meals per year.

St. Joseph’s is also the first business in California to be a certified green business. Additionally, St. Joseph’s waste reduction program was recognized in January with the California Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA) award. This award is given to individuals, organizations and businesses that have demonstrated exceptional leadership and have made notable contributions to conserve California’s resources. St. Joseph’s was among only 11 other organizations in the state to receive the honor, according to a recent statement.

“We are extremely proud of the award-winning environmental program we’ve been able to establish here at St. Joseph’s,” said John Kendle, senior service area director of operations and support services at St. Joseph’s, in a recent statement. “We truly believe that being good stewards of our environment is just another way that we can express kindness to our patients and our community.”