Lawrence General Hospital is among the health care facilities nationwide to demonstrate its commitment to lower greenhouse gas emissions and build more climate-resilient infrastructure for its patients, staff and community.
Lawrence General, through its “Green Team,” has voluntarily signed a national White House and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services-sponsored pledge to commit to a minimum of reducing organizational emissions by 50 percent by 2030 (from a baseline no earlier than 2008), publicly accounting for its progress each year. The hospital also agrees to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Greater Lawrence Family Health Center is among the several other local health care facilities to also take the pledge. Since Earth Day 2022, 900 hospitals have committed to going green.
“Lawrence General is committed to providing the best care possible for our community both inside and outside the hospital walls. Our Green Team has made great strides to mitigate the health impacts of climate change,” says Abha Agrawal, MD, FACP, FACHE, president and CEO of Lawrence General Hospital. “I am proud to stand beside our Green Team and other health care facilities nationwide as we pledge to support the HHS Healthcare Sector Climate Change Pledge.”
At Lawrence General, the hospital’s staff has formed a Green Team, comprised of staff and executive leadership who recognize that the impacts of climate change are already negatively impacting our patients’ health, whether that comes in the form of wildfire smoke increasing asthma attack rates or the challenges of coping with worsening heat waves.
The group makes conscious choices throughout the hospital to improve the daily lives of our patients. Since summer 2023, the Green Team has completed the following initiatives:
- Removed desflurane from our anesthetic gas formulary;
- Conducted a medical floor waste audit;
- Donated surplus food from the hospital cafeteria and catered departmental meetings to a local community food kitchen; and
- Developed a program for reducing waste in patient rooms.
Lawrence General’s participation in the climate change pledge will be formally announced by Health and Human Services as part of a special announcement to coincide with April 22’s Earth Day.