Greening the Supply Chain®Initiative

Transforming an industry

A hospital’s mission is to protect and heal, and this mission applies to patients, staff and the community as a whole. And yet every year, the health care industry spends billions of dollars on medical products that may have significant environmental impacts. Waste, water and raw materials are used in the production and transportation of products. Waste and emissions are created at the end of a medical product’s life. Chemicals of concern in these products can come into contact with patients and staff as a product is used, or remain in groundwater or soil when it is finally thrown away.

Because health care facilities purchase and use vast amounts of products and service to support patient care, there are opportunities through purchasing to minimize these impacts by looking at how to conserve natural resources, select safer chemical, and consume less energy and water In fact, five of the largest group purchasing organizations (GPOs) have a contracting volume that exceeds $135 billion each year. To achieve success with any sustainability effort in health care, a key element is to increase the amounts of environmentally preferable products (EPP) used in hospitals through a Practice Greenhealth effort called Greening the Supply Chain®.

For example, by purchasing more energy efficient lights or greener cleaning chemicals, a hospital reduces their environmental and human health impact. Greening the Supply Chain® is a group of suppliers, GPOs and health care systems and hospitals who have come together to collaboratively expand on available resources and target some of the barriers to environmentally preferable purchasing.

Providing tools and resources to drive change is step number one. Working with the five largest GPOs (Amerinet, Inc., HealthTrust Purchasing Group, MedAssets, Inc., Novation LLC, and Premier healthcare alliance), we have created common environmental standards for health care purchases, otherwise known as the Standardized Environmental Questions for Medical Products.

A common set of tools

Until the Standardized Questions were created, the heath care products market lacked a common set of tools to ensure that EPP were readily available and cost competitive. The Standardized Environmental Questions allow the entire industry (suppliers, hospitals, and GPOs) to align their work along a single set of criteria for environmentally preferable medical products, moving the industry towards a greener supply chain as a whole.

The standardized questions address:

  • Natural resources
  • Chemicals
  • Energy
  • Packaging
  • End-of-life impact/waste

Bringing businesses together for change

Practice Greenhealth believes in capturing and sharing the expertise of the health care industry. Engaging key supply chain businesses through our EPP Business Leadership Coalition, we are identifying practices, processes, materials, or social considerations that impact medical products.

Change for good

More than 1,300 hospitals and health care systems are working on sustainability initiatives as Practice Greenhealth members and a key element of sustainability is procuring products and services that are better for patients and the planet. By combining hospitals, larger health care systems, GPOs, and products and services manufacturers and suppliers, Practice Greenhealth aims to create sweeping change in the health care supply chain.Visit