Tag: Energy

West Park takes home top prize from Canadian Coalition of Green Health Care

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Samantha Pender, March 4, 2021

With West Park well on its way to becoming a new integrated campus of care, continuing to minimize the environmental impact in the future has been one of the top priorities. And The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care has taken notice.

At the end of 2020, West Park’s sustainability efforts were recognized with one prestigious award and two honourable mentions. The Centre won the Green Leadership award for the Year of 2019, and received honourable mentions in the Pollution Prevention category and the Green Hospital of the Year category.

The Green Hospital Scorecard is a comprehensive health care benchmarking tool that measures energy and water conservation, waste management and recycling, corporate commitment, and pollution prevention. Participating hospitals report on their environmental and sustainability initiatives through an online questionnaire and the resulting Scorecard summarizes their environmental performance relative to their peers. 

Kendra Rainford, Operational Readiness Coordinator for Campus Development and Sustainability Coordinator, has been leading West Park’s sustainability efforts as chair of the Environmental Sustainability Committee for four years, and is looking forward to supporting the planning of an environmentally sustainable future at the Centre.

“It’s really great to have our sustainability efforts for West Park recognized by The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, and I’m really proud of the work our committee has accomplished so far,” Rainford says. “But we have big plans going forward, and I’m hoping these aren’t the last of our awards.”

This is West Park’s second consecutive year taking home a top award, and third award from The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care overall. West Park has a long-standing history of environmental awards that can be found here: https://www.westpark.org/AboutUs/AwardsandHonours.

While the work accomplished by the Environmental Sustainability Committee so far has captured the attention of many, the committee is forging onward to make a greener and brighter future for West Park’s new hospital, honouring West Park’s longstanding green legacy and commitment to environmentally sustainable healthcare operations.

West Park’s award was presented at the Coalition’s virtual awards ceremony in December 2020 by Executive Director Neil Ritchie.

The Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care is recognized as Canada’s premier, integrated green resource network driving leadership in environmentally-sustainable health care practices and a catalyst for environmental change by encouraging the adoption of multiple environmental principles and practices to reduce the Canadian health care sector’s ecological impact while protecting human health.

“The healthcare industry has a huge environmental footprint, and we really want West Park to be at the forefront of trying to reduce that,” Rainford explains. “It’s incredibly important to us that our future operations and practices align with our new state-of-the-art, energy efficient infrastructure in the new hospital.”

West Park Named Green Hospital of the Year!

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Mark Palmer, January 3, 2020

View this story and more at westpark.org.

In recognition of its commitment to environmental stewardship in greening its internal health care practices, West Park has received this year’s Green Health Care Award naming us 2018 Green Hospital of the Year (non-acute) by the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care.

The award is based on a comprehensive scorecard by which each participating hospital across Canada is measured. The scorecard reviews metrics related to energy use, water generation, recycling rate, leadership, policy and planning and more. West Park is proud to report the following:

•  A 21.1% year-over-year decrease in waste generation
•  A 4.1% year-over-year decrease in water usage
•  A 3rd consecutive year of below average energy use intensity (earning West Park an honourable mention in this category)

“The Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change’s annual report for 2019 recently noted that Canada’s healthcare sector was the third-highest per-capita greenhouse gas emitter in the world [only behind The US and Japan] so we are pleased that our efforts have produced excellent results,” said Shelley Ditty, Vice President Campus Development and Support Services. “As we undergo construction of our new hospital development project we will maintain our focus on environmental sustainability.”

The Coalition recognized this focus by noting that West Park has made significant progress in all six policy and planning areas; environmentally preferable purchasing, toxins management, sustainable construction/renovation, energy, waste and water. The Centre’s scorecard also notes that leadership is reflected through commitment, support and outreach all of which can be attributed to management and staff efforts and by the presence of West Park’s Environmental Committee.

The committee has a number of important plans for 2020 including efforts to further decrease the use of single-use plastics and the planning of a second annual sustainability fair for staff and patients. “The Centre’s Environmental Committee is always looking for new and exciting ideas to raise awareness about the importance of doing our part to minimize our carbon footprint.” stated Diane Zdybal, Director of Support Services.

Congratulations everyone at West Park for Keeping it Green!

‘Sleep’ Mode Saves Energy!

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Kendra Rainford, March 6, 2019

Help save energy… it takes BEAR-ly any time!

West Park is working to reduce its energy usage by putting our computers into ‘SLEEP’ mode while not in use.

When you place your computer in ‘SLEEP’ mode it uses the least amount of power necessary. When the computer is turned back on, the user can immediately begin working where they left off in just a second or two!

By choosing ‘SLEEP’ mode, West Park staff is helping to break BEARiers with our sustainability goals!

West Park Receives Greening Healthcare Award!

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April, 2018

WEST PARK BECOMES A MEMBER OF THE 5% CLUB.

The Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA) announced that West Park Healthcare Centre has been awarded the Greening Health Care 5 % Club Award.

The award, created through the TRCA’s Greening Health Care Program, recognizes hospitals that have successfully reduced their total energy consumption by at least 5% relative to their baseline.

Winners of this award have shown a commitment in achieving energy conservation at their facilities and demonstrated the effectiveness of performance based conservation.

“We would like to congratulate your hospital for this achievement and your commitment to addressing energy conservation and the fight against climate change,” said Gemma Stott-Correia, Coordinator with the Community Transformation Programs and Watershed Strategies Division of the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. “We hope that this accomplishment further motivates energy conservation through improvements in operations and retrofit projects within your facility.”

“This award signifies West Park’s continued commitment to protecting the environment through responsible stewardship of our resources,” said Diane Zdybal, Director of Support Services for West Park. “Conservation is a community effort and West Park staff continue to do their part by turning off lights and switching electronic devices off when not in use. We continue to explore opportunities to make our buildings as energy efficient as possible as we look to building one of the most energy efficient hospitals in Ontario.”

“Congratulations to the entire Operations and Logistics team, the Environmental Committee and the staff and patients at West Park for your hard work and commitment to “greening!” said Anne-Marie Malek, West Park President & CEO. 

Awards will be presented at the Greening Health Care Forum on May 30, 2018.