What You Need to Know
Four hospitals within Hackensack Meridian Health are first in the nation to achieve The Joint Commission’s Sustainable Healthcare Certification (SHC). These hospitals have met rigorous standards and elements of performance to establish structure, rigor, and accountability to accelerate healthcare’s growing sustainability efforts.
The four Hackensack Meridian Health hospitals include:
- Hackensack University Medical Center
- Bayshore Medical Center
- Jersey Shore University Medical Center
- Ocean University Medical Center
Since the healthcare industry accounts for nearly 9% of the nation’s carbon emissions, commitment to keeping people healthy includes recognizing and reducing healthcare’s outsized share of carbon emissions. Responding to and recovering from severe weather events (e.g., wildfires, flooding, hurricanes, and other weather-related emergencies) affect entire communities, healthcare organizations, and their patients, staff, and responders.
The Joint Commission’s SHC provides a framework to help healthcare organizations begin, continue, or expand their decarbonization efforts. It builds on the momentum of healthcare organizations like HMH to lead the way in sustainability excellence by inspiring and guiding others who desire to prioritize greener practices.
To achieve SHC, all four hospitals set priorities and governance for sustainability initiatives, including creating baselines to measure three sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and developing an action plan to reduce them. The four hospitals also underwent a virtual certification review to assess their compliance with the SHC program’s requirements.
As a network, HMH has established itself as a national leader in sustainability. Recent achievements include:
- Begun implementation of 30 MW on-site solar and battery storage
- Invested more than $116 million in energy-efficient infrastructure upgrades
- Achieved PEER Gold certification for Hackensack University Medical Center’s Central Utility Plant, a recognition of excellence in efficiency and resiliency
- 100% of electronics purchased in 2022 were EPEAT certified
- Saved $1.71 million by reprocessing medical devices and 40,000 pounds diverted from the landfill
- 99% of furnishings purchased were free of harmful chemicals
- 96.7% of cleaning products were third-party eco-logo certified (green)
Additionally, as one of the original signatories to the White House and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Climate Pledge, HMH and The Joint Commission have each pledged to reduce GHG emissions by 50% by 2030 and to achieve net zero by 2050.
HMH also has been a leader in healthcare equity. Four of its hospitals were among the first in the nation to achieve The Joint Commission’s Healthcare Equity Certification in late 2023.