UAE Hospitals: Environmental Sustainability and Green Initiatives

This report reviews green initiatives undertaken by the hospital sector in the United Arab Emirates, summarizing the document "Environmental sustainability in hospitals: The value of efficiency." It emphasizes the importance of environmental sustainability in hospitals, requiring structure, funding, and cultural change. The report addresses electricity and water wastage reduction, lean and green supply chain management, and solid and hazardous waste management, using Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi as a case study. The clinic's efforts in reducing electricity consumption through demand-side management and smart metering, cutting water usage by changing plant mix and using solar water heaters, and implementing green supply chain management are highlighted. The report also discusses the clinic's commitment to reducing waste through recycling programs and proper management of hazardous materials, ultimately aiming for a sustainable environment and improved community health.

Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN HOSPITALS AND GREEN
INITIATIVE
Environmental sustainability in hospitals and green initiative
University Name
Student Name
Authors’ Note

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ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN HOSPITALS AND GREEN INITIATIVE
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................3
Discussion:.................................................................................................................................3
Electricity wastage reduction:....................................................................................................4
Water wastage reduction:...........................................................................................................4
Lean and green supply chain management:...............................................................................5
Solid and hazardous waste management:...................................................................................6
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................7
References list:...........................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
The report is prepared for reviewing the green initiative undertaken by hospital sector
of United Arab Emirates. For this purpose, the essential aspects of the provided document
titled “Environmental sustainability in hospitals: The value of efficiency” have been
summarized. The document depicts the importance of maintaining environmental
sustainability is hospitals. Initiatives of sustainability in hospitals requires creating of
structure and availability of sufficient funds along with support in terms of cultural change
such as adequate resources, appropriate policies, effective leadership and vision that is clearly
communicated. Furthermore, healthcare organizations should be taken into account the
available opportunities such as water, energy, supply chain, commissioning and retro
commissioning waste for becoming sustainable (Hpoe.org, 2018). Health of population can
be improved by incorporating sustainability in their strategic approach. It has been
ascertained from some research that the top concern for most of the hospitals have been
financial pressure and the efforts of sustainability should be financially viable for generating
long term success.
Discussion:
For the purpose of analysis, the following issues have been addressed in Cleveland
Clinic Abu Dhabi of UAE that is known for providing complex and critical care requirements
that is unique to the Abu Dhabi population. Cleveland is a multispecialty hospital having the
institutes of Neurology, eye and respiratory, heart and vascular, emergency medicine. When
it comes to facilities management of healthcare it is required to implement a sustainable
business approach. Healthcare organizations would be able to save multimillion dollar by
providing solutions of sustainable facilities management through efficient practice of water,
energy and waste management (Bruns et al., 2017).

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ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN HOSPITALS AND GREEN INITIATIVE
Electricity wastage reduction:
Healthcare organizations are provided with multiple benefits from reducing the waste
of electricity in terms of lower utility cost and helping the environment by reducing the
amount of natural resources that are to be used. It is required by hospitals to comply with the
energy saving programs of state and local governments that have mandated adoption of green
building codes and reduction of energy. Energy in hospitals can be saved by way of reducing
emission of carbon and monitoring and the implementation of AC modules can slash
electricity bills by 15% (clevelandclinicabudhabi.ae 2018). Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi has
several interrelated programs in place for reducing the consumption of electricity
substantially. Some other efforts involve encouraging energy users to consume energy
efficiently by demand side management, smart metering and distributed generation that help
in reducing transmission loss by onsite energy generation. In addition to this, customer
awareness programs have been launched by Dubai electricity and water authority that
persuades user to set their air conditioners to warmer settings. However, an integrated
strategy should be developed by policymakers for managing electricity. In this regard, it is
required by health care leaders to ensure that efforts of reduction of electricity wastage would
work in hospital setting (Blass et al., 2017). For instance, unless the level of lighting required
by surgeons is provided, usage of high efficiency light bulbs in operating room will not work.
Water wastage reduction:
The wastewater pollution and consumption of water in hospital can be reduced by
implementing a series or recycling, conservation and treatment measures. In order to
withstand natural, physical, social and economic disruption, it is essential by healthcare
organization to establish the relationship between healthcare resilience and availability of
potable water. Hospitals in an attempt to become greenest organization can reduce the
amount of water it requires. UAE is charges with lowering its reliance on desalination plants

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and so that amount of domestic water usage by hospitals should be reduced. Cleveland Clinic
Abu Dhabi has reduced the amount of water required by changing the plant mix in its ground
and using condensed water from the air conditioning system. The importance of properly
segregating the waste is done by tracking average total cost per ton for disposal of given type
of material. Hospital also succeeded in cutting the amount of water that is used for irrigation.
The hot water demand of clinic from the last year, 2017 has been met by solar water heaters
(Klein, 2015). This will have the consequence of saving 750000 Dirham on its utility bills
and thereby reducing the carbon footprint of hospital. The monthly usage of water within the
hospital has fell to 19830 cubic meters in September, 2017 compared to 28787 cubic meters
in December, 2016 according to report released by in house sustainability of hospital. It is
indicated by this data that hospital has saved more than 20 millions of while providing g
excellent care without compromising the safety of patient (Malik et al., 2016). This move of
reducing the wastage of water is the ongoing commitment of hospital to become one of the
greenest healthcare facilities operating in region.
Lean and green supply chain management:
Sustainability issue is considerably affected by the supply chain of organization and a
CQO (cost, outcome and quality) approach is adopted by supply chain managers for
effectively managing supply chain. Employment of green supply chain management at
hospitals provides with a holistic approach for reducing the impact of operations on
environment and save money (Portals.clevelandclinic.org, 2018).
At global level, healthcare industry is regarded as the commercial supplier in the
world that is the most resource intensive. Cleveland Clinic has taken every possible effort to
become more and more environmentally sustainable. In MENA region, Cleveland Clinic Abu
Dhabi has become one of the first hospitals to reduce the emission of carbon by
implementing a green house tool for exhausting log and quantifying the exact amount of

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green house emission produced by hospital. The amount of cooling required by iconic
building constructed by hospital has been reduced by designing an innovative double skin
exterior that helps in providing air buffer between outdoor and indoor environment (Campion
et al., 2015).
Cleveland Clinic has implemented green supply chain management; hospital is able to
fulfil several green requirements for becoming a green organization. The raw materials under
the green supply chain management are less used and are mostly recyclable. It also helps in
proper disposition of waste and help in green food and material consumption. For the whole
life cycle of green hospital in keeping people and environment safe, the management of
organization is required to be sustainable. The green chain supply management enables
organization to have an environmental preferable purchasing that lowers the consumption of
water and energy, minimizing the amount of hazardous chemicals entering the hospital and
reducing the packaging waste. This promotion of sustainable decision by way of greener
supply chain management would help organization to contribute to a positive public image in
addition to environmental benefits and cost savings (Jamieson et al., 2015).
Solid and hazardous waste management:
The management of solid and hazardous waste is one of the challenging tasks faced
by healthcare organization. Hence, a proper management of medical waste is required for
minimizing environmental and health risks. A comprehensive chain of actions are required
for medical waste management. Across the healthcare system, Cleveland clinic is committed
to reduce the waste by engaging caregivers for minimizing the waste that is send to landfills.
This helps in reducing the cost, protecting the environment and improving land, air and water
quality in communities. The system of organization is designed to handle the waste
management in responsible manner and significant progress has been made in number of
areas in year 2014 (Rich et al., 2018).

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ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY IN HOSPITALS AND GREEN INITIATIVE
Furthermore, Cleveland Clinic created a system wide expansion of recycling program
of clinical plastics in partnership with waste vendor and Buckeye industries. This innovative
partnership created in year 2014 has helped organization in diverting 92 tonnes of clinical
plastics. Hazardous materials such as cleaning products, water treating chemicals,
sterilization, laboratory chemicals, electronics waste, pharmaceuticals, wastes and
radiological films forms an important part of model of healthcare delivery. In order to protect
the health of community at large and caregivers, it is critical to properly manage these
materials. There was expansion of pharmaceutical waste program which was part of chemical
disposal program. Expansion of such program was done for creating a responsible disposal by
way of capturing all pharmaceutical waste and thereby contributing to prevention of
environment contamination (De Soete et al., 2017). In addition to this, there is regulation of
medical waste that is generated during the treatment of patients for protecting the public
health. Cleveland Clinic appropriately treats all the regulated and hazardous waste generated
along with disposing them domestically.
Conclusion:
From the analysis of several green initiatives undertaken by Cleveland Clinic, it can
be inferred that organization takes every possible efforts to enhance their sustainability
measures and contribute to community and healthcare sector as a whole. The organization is
committed to improving environmental management to a high degree by constantly seeking
new and innovative ways to meet its goal of achieving sustainable environment. In order to
ascertain greater efficiencies, the current approach to maintain sustainability of environment
should be assessed by hospital leaders. Implementation of sustainable strategy helps in
creating a culture of sustainability by efficient hospitals. However, there should be well
alignment between sustainability efforts and its mission and vision.

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References list:
Blass, A. P., da Costa, S. E. G., de Lima, E. P., & Borges, L. A. (2017). Measuring
environmental performance in hospitals: A practical approach. Journal of Cleaner
Production, 142, 279-289.
Bruns-Smith, A., Choy, V., Chong Ph D, H., & Verma Ph D, R. (2015). Environmental
sustainability in the hospitality industry: Best practices, guest participation, and
customer satisfaction.
Campion, N., Thiel, C. L., Woods, N. C., Swanzy, L., Landis, A. E., & Bilec, M. M. (2015).
Sustainable healthcare and environmental life-cycle impacts of disposable supplies: a
focus on disposable custom packs. Journal of Cleaner Production, 94, 46-55.
Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi. (2018). A world-class multispecialty hospital. [online]
Available at: https://www.clevelandclinicabudhabi.ae/en/pages/default.aspx
[Accessed 17 Jul. 2018].
De Soete, W., Jiménez-González, C., Dahlin, P., & Dewulf, J. (2017). Challenges and
recommendations for environmental sustainability assessments of pharmaceutical
products in the healthcare sector. Green Chemistry, 19(15), 3493-3509.
Hpoe.org. (2018). [online] Available at: http://www.hpoe.org/Reports-HPOE/ashe-
sustainability-report-FINAL.pdf [Accessed 17 Jul. 2018].
Jamieson, M., Wicks, A., & Boulding, T. (2015). Becoming environmentally sustainable in
healthcare: an overview. Australian Health Review, 39(4), 417-424.
Klein, K. (2015). Values-based food procurement in hospitals: the role of health care group
purchasing organizations. Agriculture and human values, 32(4), 635-648.

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Malik, M. M., Abdallah, S., & Hussain, M. (2016). Assessing supplier environmental
performance: applying analytical hierarchical process in the United Arab Emirates
healthcare chain. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 55, 1313-1321.
Portals.clevelandclinic.org. (2018). Waste Reduction and the UN Global Compact |
Cleveland Clinic . [online] Available at:
http://portals.clevelandclinic.org/ungc2015/Environment/Waste-
Reduction#24483965-waste-segregation--a-cost-reduction-strategy [Accessed 17 Jul.
2018].
Rich, C. R., Singleton, J. K., & Wadhwa, S. S. (2018). Sustainability for healthcare
management: a leadership imperative. Routledge.