Award Types
Quick Links
- Partner Recognition
- Partner For Change, Partner For Change With Distinction, And Environmental Leadership Circle
- DEHP-Free Award
- Making Medicine Mercury-Free
- System For Change
- Champion For Change
Partner Recognition
The Partner Recognition Award is for healthcare facilities that have begun to work on environmental improvements, have achieved progress in several areas, and have at least 10% recycling rate for their total waste stream. This is a good introductory Award to our program. Recipients receive a framed certificate framed in bamboo.
This Award is intended to encourage fledgling sustainability programs and should not be applied for year after year. If your facility has won PR a couple of times already, your program should be progressing, and we encourage you to apply for Partner for Change. If you apply for the Partner for Change Award and do not quality, you are automatically considered for the Partner Recognition Award.
Please note that this year the minimum qualifications for the Partner Recognition Award have been raised, and now include:
- Recycling 10% or more of your total waste stream
- Completion of the Waste Assessment Summary Table
- Completion of a number of successful pollution prevention or sustainability projects
Partner For Change, Partner For Change With
Distinction, And Environmental Leadership Circle
Please note that all three of these Awards use the same Partner for Change Award Application form.
The Partner for Change Award recognizes health care facilities that have established environmental programs and continuously improve and expand upon these programs on the path to sustainability.
Minimum qualifications for the PFC Award include:
- recycle 15% or more of their total waste stream
- have a mercury elimination program in place with a plan for total elimination, and
- have implemented of a number of successful pollution prevention projects or sustainability programs.
In addition, we highly recommend that you have a Green Team.
This is our main Award and can be won year after year; in fact, we encourage you to apply for this Award every year that you have made gains in your sustainability programs. This Award is non-competitive, in that everyone who meets the minimum qualifications can win the Award for their work in sustainability. We recognize the huge amount of effort that it takes just to keep your already established programs running smoothly, but do hope to see some incremental improvements each year.
The Partner for Change, with Distinction Award is a competitive Award that recognizes healthcare facilities that have well established environmental programs and are the cream of the PFC crop. These facilities must have a recycling rate of 20% or higher, and an RMW generation rate of 10% or lower. Distinction winners must be able to demonstrate progress in the basics, such as an EPP policy, RMW reduction techniques, Green Cleaning, and IPM, but also show some progress in some more advanced categories such as Food, Greening the OR, Greening the Supply Chain, Energy and Water. Distinction winners have a "Culture of Sustainability" and are leaders in their communities and in healthcare.
Minimum qualifications for the PFC with Distinction Award include:
- a 20% or greater recycling rate with an RMW generation of 10% or less
- demonstrate progress in the basics, such as an EPP policy, RMW reduction techniques, Green Cleaning, and IPM.
- describe specific progress in a number of less "basic" categories such as Food, Greening the OR, Greening the Supply Chain, Energy and Water, or other real innovation.
- a show of leadership in the local community and/or in the health care sector
The Partner for Change, with Distinction Award is a competitive Award, and just because you meet the minimum requirements does not necessarily mean that you will win the Award.
The Environmental Leadership Award is the premier Award recognizing health care facilities that exemplify environmental excellence and are setting the highest standards for environmental practices and sustainability in health care. This is our most competitive Award.
Minimum qualifications for the ELC Award include:
- meet all of the criteria for the mercury-free Award, (or won MMMF in the past)
- a 25% or greater recycling rate, with an RMW generation rate of 8% or less
- progress in just about every area on the application
- lead the health care sector in innovation and sustainability, and
- are leaders in the local community
If you are hoping to be a contender for the Environmental Leadership Award, you will fill out this PFC Award application. ELC winners are chosen from the top PFC applications. Please note that this is a very competitive Award and just because you have attained the minimum qualifications for ELC, it does not mean that you will receive the Award. Only a couple of ELC winners are chosen. If you have already been inducted into the Environmental Leadership Circle, you also need to fill out the PFC Award application. This will allow you to truly showcase your efforts towards sustainability, and will also create “trackable” data.
DEHP-Free Award
The DEHP-Free Award is given to the hospital or system that demonstrates the most success with replacing DEHP-containing medical devices with safer alternatives, particularly with vulnerable patient populations.
This year, the DEHP-Free Award application is integrated into the Partner for Change Award application. To apply for the Award, make sure you fill out Appendix C. If you are not applying for the Partner for Change Award, you can still apply for the DEHP-Free Award. Just fill out page one of the Partner for Change Award application; then skip down to Appendix C, page 18, and complete the form.
- See the FDA’s Public Health Notification regarding DEHP
- Find out more about DEHP reduction
This award generously made possible by Hospira, maker of DEHP-free VisIV® Containers.
Making Medicine Mercury-Free
The Making Medicine Mercury-Free Award recognizes facilities that have virtually eliminated mercury from their facilities and have made a commitment to continue to be “mercury free.” By “virtually” we recognize that there will always be small amounts of mercury in your facility that you cannot eliminate at the current time (such as mercury in your fluorescent lamps) or items that are not easily replaceable but will be taken care of by attrition (such as mercury in your boiler switches). However we do expect you to identify and eliminate even hidden mercury (such as products that contain thimerosal as a preservative) where possible. There is a specific list of criteria to accomplish in order to receive the Award, and you need to be able to complete the entire list.
You must attach ALL requested policies (for example you must have a written and approved facility-wide mercury-free purchasing policy) and you must be able to indicate mercury reduction or elimination in all areas of the application (with the exception of construction) to win the Award.
In addition, you CANNOT win the MMMF Award if you are crushing your fluorescent lamps onsite.
System For Change
The System for Change Award recognizes health systems that are working cohesively to set system goals, track data, benchmark, and share successes in environmental performance. The system must have joined Practice Greenhealth as a health system and must have at least five hospitals or long-term care facilities. A minimum of 20% of the health system’s facilities must also apply for and meet or exceed the minimum criteria for the Partner for Change Award the same year in order for the system to receive this Award.
Champion For Change
The Champion for Change Award recognizes businesses, including Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs), that demonstrate successful accomplishments in ‘greening’ their own organization and have assisted their associated healthcare facility clients/members/customers in improving their environmental performance. (This Award is for Business Members and Strategic Resource Network Members only).
To apply for an award, go to awards.practicegreenhealth.org and follow the instructions on that page. Note that it will ask you to log in and this is a different login than what you use for the regular Practice Greenhealth website. If you did not apply last year, you will need to create an "award login" and then "Create a Facility." The award application should be for an entire Business, not for a particular facility.
