Sustainability: Beyond the Board Goal

Sustainability: Beyond the Board Goal

Johnni Beckel, MA, Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, Columbus, Ohio; Rob Cercek, MHA, BS, FACHE, President, OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital, Columbus, Ohio; Roland Tokarski, MBA, BS, Vice President, Construction and Real Estate Management, OhioHealth, Columbus, Ohio; Terri M. Scannell, BBA: Finance, MBA and Law, Principal Advisor, Sustainability and ESG, OhioHealth, Columbus, Ohio

Don’t outsource the hard work of insight and creativity. Trust internal experts to know their areas and leverage sustainability to foster engagement and boost culture. Terri Scannell

Supplier Implications

Action Items

Key Takeaways

A board-level goal moves the needle on environmental sustainability and a three-year goal window accelerates wins.

As corporate entities in the healthcare value chain, suppliers must address sustainability issues.

Integrating sustainability across the entire organization will lead to meaningful advancements in many areas.

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For suppliers, understanding the work OhioHealth is doing can help align sustainability efforts to accelerate progress. There is lack of coordination between sustainability teams at hospitals and suppliers, despite the fact they are working on the same goals. Strategically partnering can make a tremendous impact. Waste costs hospitals and suppliers. As hospitals start to look at reducing their waste stream and consider a total cost of ownership model, understanding packaging, materials and utilization will be incredibly important.

Learn about OhioHealth and MedSpeed's partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Did You Know?

In all 50 counties where OhioHealth operates, its medical couriers are 100% free of tailpipe emissions, and it is the only hospital in the nation that has shifted to all electric vehicles for medical courier routes.

Key Takeaways

• Look for sustainability touchstones that speak to your organization's cultural values, including smart energy, responsible purchasing, healthy building, less waste and green transportation.
• Setting up a governance structure is a critical success factor. For example, ensure that you have the talent in place to make sustainability a continuous business operation. Also make sure you recognize the people on your team who are ideating and implementing impactful changes.

• Hospitals reside at the very center of community health. Integrating sustainability across the entire organization will lead to meaningful advancements in environmental stewardship, operational performance and health equity while building a culture of excellence.
• At OhioHealth, leadership's support and trust of functional implementation teams to make an impact was key to sustainability goal ownership across the system.

Action Items

• Set teams up for success by celebrating wins and learning from challenges. Use existing recognition programs and focus on the impacts that are most important to stakeholders.

• A board-level goal moves the needle on environmental sustainability and a three-year goal window accelerates wins. The three-year goal is essential because it takes time to understand what changes need to be made and to set appropriate KPIs.
• Implementation of sustainability goals requires consideration of key stakeholders. Leverage existing methods, such as employee engagement surveys or community health needs assessments, to understand stakeholders' sustainability expectations.