Take the CGHI Pledge
We, the undersigned healthcare institutions in the Chicago area, are deeply concerned about protecting the public and environmental health of the communities we serve.
We believe healthcare providers must exercise leadership in their communities and throughout society by modeling ways to protect human health by minimizing Green House Gas emissions and striving for sustainable, climate neutral practices in our own operations.
We therefore pledge to participate in the Chicago Green Healthcare Initiative (CGHI) in an effort to reduce the environmental impact of healthcare delivery activities.
We commit to collaborating with our peers and learning best practices and methods for conserving natural resources and materials used in the delivery of healthcare operations.
ACCORDINGLY, AS A CGHI PARTICIPANT WE COMMIT TO THE FOLLOWING ACTIONS:
- Become an EPA Energy Star™ Partner – actively enter monthly electricity and natural gas consumption data in EPA’s Portfolio Manager. Conduct ongoing data analysis to ensure continuous improvement and track monetary savings. [Note: ComEd can auto-populate electric data into Portfolio Manager for you.] Baseline: 2008 data
- Actively track monthly waste and recycling data using. Conduct ongoing data analysis to ensure continuous improvement and track monetary savings. EPA Waste Wise™ may be used for this. Baseline: 2009 data
- Support the goals of the CGHI by creating an energy management policy/plan to help us set priorities for implementing cost effective energy efficiency measures aligned with our hospital’s strategic goals.
- Set at least two (2) annual measurable and achievable environmental goals and report results to CGHI. To set priorities, we will use data from sources such as, our energy assessment, free annual Energy & Water benchmarking survey, the Eco Checklist, employee and patient satisfaction surveys.
- Participate in CGHI conference calls, surveys, peer learning opportunities, training and recognition programs.
- Work with in-house Public Relations/Marketing to publicize our commitment to the CGHI, engage staff in ongoing projects, encourage staff to submit their ideas for greening and communicate accomplishments.
Signed,
Name & title ______________________________________________________________
Hospital & date ______________________________________________________________
We understand that all data collected during our participation in this initiative for purposes of measuring and tracking energy intensity, Green House Gas Emissions, and waste will only be reported in aggregate for purposes of this initiative.