Penn Medicine Princeton Health Recognized for Sustainability Efforts

In the restaurant at Penn Medicine Princeton Medical Center (PMC), staff members and visitors end their meal by placing trays stacked with plates, utensils, uneaten food, drink bottles — you name it —onto a conveyor belt that slowly carries them out of sight.

It’s no disappearing trick. The trays emerge on the other side of the wall, where kitchen staff members are waiting to sort the waste into three color-coded bins: gray for landfill-bound items, blue for recyclables, and green for food remnants.

One floor below, in the hospital’s main kitchen, is a similar worksite set up to sort waste from the food prep area and trays that are brought back from patient rooms.

The food waste collection at PMC began this spring. The waste, initially taken to a biofuel company in Trenton and converted to renewable energy, is now trucked instead to a nearby farm that uses it as feed for livestock or grinds it into mulch.

PMC collected 1½ tons of food waste in the first three weeks of the program, said Greg Evans, Penn Medicine’s Corporate Director of Sustainability. At that rate, PMC would collect 26 tons over a full year. That amounts to 52,000 pounds of food waste — a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions — diverted from the landfill by a single hospital. Evans said he hopes to introduce food waste collection at other Penn Medicine entities as well.

Food waste collection is one of the newest sustainability efforts at Princeton Health, which was recently recognized by Practice Greenhealth, a nonprofit membership organization promoting environmental stewardship and best practices in the healthcare.

In May, Princeton Health received Practice Greenhealth’s Partner for Change Award for the second year in a row. Evans said the award — presented to only 216 healthcare organizations nationwide — reflects Princeton Health’s progress related to ongoing sustainability initiatives.

For instance, in 2022, Princeton Health more than doubled its collection and reprocessing of single-use medical devices, such as pulse oximeters, leads and cables, and various surgical supplies. PMC and its ambulatory surgery centers continued to ban the use of the anesthetic desflurane, a particularly harmful greenhouse gas.

Princeton Health also completed an energy audit of the hospital campus that sparked initiatives to dramatically decrease carbon emissions. The initiatives are expected to kick off later this summer, Evans said.

Another ongoing initiative is the introduction of SAO — or stabilized aqueous ozone — cleaning technology, which adds oxygen to tap water to create a solution that is an effective cleanser and sanitizer yet contains no harmful chemicals.

Larry Garcia, Director, Environmental Services (EVS), said the department is using the SAO solution in the atrium and other public areas of PMC while seeking Infection Control Committee approval to use it throughout the hospital. Evans said the goal is to increase the use of SAO at all Princeton Health locations before expanding to other entities across Penn Medicine.

One initiative that has already extended across other Penn Medicine entities is the measurement of carbon emissions to calculate a total for the entire University of Pennsylvania Health System.

The figure will be used as a baseline to develop a multiyear strategy to reduce emissions and meet systemwide sustainability goals.

About Penn Medicine Princeton Health
Penn Medicine Princeton Health is one of the most comprehensive healthcare systems in New Jersey, providing acute care hospital services through Princeton Medical Center; behavioral healthcare through Princeton House Behavioral Health; in-home nursing, rehabilitation and hospice care; primary and specialty care through Princeton Medicine Physicians; ambulatory surgery and wellness services. For more information, visit www.princetonhcs.org. Princeton Health is part of the University of Pennsylvania Health System (UPHS), which, together with the University of Pennsylvania’s Raymond and Ruth Perelman School of Medicine, forms Penn Medicine, one of the world’s leading academic medical centers, dedicated to the related missions of medical education, biomedical research and excellence in patient care.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Andy Williams, andrew.williams3@pennmedicine.upenn.edu