ED Green Team

Have ideas for an additional opportunity, want to get involved, or want to inquire about incorporating an existing project at your department, contact us at: ED_GreenTeam@urmc.rochester.edu

The ED Green Team is a multidisciplinary team, including physicians, nursing, administration, operations, environmental services, pharmacy, etc, with the goal of making the hospital more sustainable and resilient. Founded by our ER physicians, there are numerous ongoing projects and ways to get involved.

Projects

• Bioquell – Waste reduction
  • Hundreds of pre-packaged tools are utilized every single day in our emergency department to provide effective and efficient health care to our valued patients. With the use of so much equipment, there is an inherent risk for resource waste. This dilemma is of HUGE concern for the ED Green Team. To combat this, we’ve developed a protocol to save un-opened, yet potentially soiled equipment, and sterilize them with hydrogen peroxide. We then restock the sanitized equipment to recycle and help limit resource waste, and to make the world we work, and live in, just a little bit greener! We have already saved our department thousands of dollars and are just getting our project off the ground now! We are all very excited about the future of this project!
• Biohazard waste
  • An ongoing effort led by URMC EM residents to reduce the amount of inappropriate biohazard waste in the department. Items such as linens and metals are often inappropriately disposed of, with the development of protocols this team hopes to reduce inefficiency and improve sustainability.
• Green Building Practices
  • A newer and ongoing effort involving the EM faculty, residents, facilities and operations, and medical students at the school to work towards a more sustainable and resilient hospital system. We are advocating to making the ER and URMC hospital LEED certified, and have created a multidisciplinary petition to voice this change.

Community Outreach

• The ED Green Team facilitates regular river trash pickups. There are multiple avenues to get involved in community outreach, including: op-ed submissions in local newspapers, community garden organization, and giving talks at local health organizations.