Gundersen named as a Top 25 hospital for environmental excellence in healthcare

Friday, April 21, 2017

For the 11th consecutive year, Gundersen Health System is receiving national recognition for their environmental initiatives.

Practice Greenhealth has named Gundersen as one of the Top 25 hospitals in the country for its distinguished environmental work which has earned them the Top 25 Environmental Excellence Award.

According to Cecelia DeLoach Lynn, representative from Practice Greenhealth, "Based on a rigorous scoring system, this award honors the breadth of success in sustainability programs including Leadership, Waste, Chemicals, Greening the Operating Room, Food, Environmentally Preferable Purchasing, Energy, Water, Climate and Green Building. As Practice Greenhealth's highest honor, this award recognizes the best of the best in healthcare environmental stewardship."

Gundersen, along with Hudson Hospital & Clinic, are the only hospitals in Wisconsin to make the Top 25.

"It's very humbling to think that we are the only healthcare organization in the country that has sustained this high level of environmental stewardship and been recognized with the top award for sustainability in healthcare for eleven years in a row," says Tom Thompson, sustainability coordinator at Gundersen. "While this is a great accomplishment, our work isn't finished. We are always coming up with new ideas and initiatives as we strive to improve the environment and enrich the lives of people in the communities we serve."

Besides the Top 25 Environmental Excellence Award, Gundersen will also be honored with Circles of Excellence Awards for their work specifically in "Waste" and "Greening the OR" (Operating Room). DeLoach Lynn says that the Circles of Excellence honor up to ten of the highest performing hospitals in specific areas of sustainability expertise.

Gundersen will receive their awards in May in Minneapolis at CleanMed, the national environmental conference for leaders in healthcare sustainability.

To learn more about Gundersen's Envision program, go to gundersenenvision.org.