The state of our health goes hand in hand with the health of the environment we live in.
In honor of Earth Day, we look at how Baptist Health is working to reduce energy consumption and air pollution, conserve water, cut down on waste, and educate members of the communities we serve.
Guest: Jason Bell, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Baptist Health South Florida.
The state of our health goes hand in hand with the health of the environment we live in.
In honor of Earth Day, we look at how Baptist Health is working to reduce energy consumption and air pollution, conserve water, cut down on waste, and educate members of the communities we serve.
Guest: Jason Bell, Assistant Vice President of Operations, Baptist Health South Florida.
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At Baptist Health South Florida, it's our mission to care for you when you're injured or sick and help you stay healthy and fit.
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Welcome to the Baptist HealthTalk podcast, where our respected experts bring you timely practical health and wellness information to improve your family's quality of life.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Welcome Baptist HealthTalk podcast listeners. I’m your host, Dr. Jonathan Fialkow, I am a preventative cardiologist and lipidologist at Baptist Health’s Miami Cardiac & Vascular Institute, where I am also Chief of Cardiology at Baptist Hospital and the Chief Population Health Officer at Baptist Health.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Here’s a question for you: What does climate change have to do with our health? Well, according to the World Health Organization, climate change is the single greatest threat to global health in the 21st century.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Clean air, safe drinking water, and sufficient food are all impacted by climate change. So are outbreaks of diseases such as malaria.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Baptist Health is committed to improving the health and well being of the people we serve – and that includes a responsibility to the environment. With Earth Day coming up this week, I thought it would be a great time to find out what Baptist is doing in this area, from our Assistant Vice President of Operations, Jason Bell. Jason has a background in Ecology, Anthropology and Business Administration, and integrates his experience in those fields to guide Baptist Health’s Sustainability efforts. Welcome to the podcast!
Jason Bell:
Thank you.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
When we think of industries that impact our climate, healthcare isn’t the first that comes to mind. In what ways does Baptist Health see a connection?
Jason Bell:
Several years ago, Brian Keeley, who's the president of Baptist Health, he provided us with a very powerful quote. He said, "Healthy people depend on a healthy environment," and that's really been the foundation for all the sustainability work that we've undertaken ever since. Healthcare represents about 20% of the US economy. It employs more people than any other economic sector, and clearly, being socially responsible and caring for the community, it's in our DNA. However, when you look at the industry of healthcare, you see that probably only about 10% of healthcare organizations are actively tracking what kind of impact they're having on the local environment from a metrics perspective, really looking at their waste, their energy consumption, their air pollution, et cetera. Healthcare actually represents about 10% of all the US carbon emission. I'll use another quote, which is really from one of my favorite superheroes, which is Spider-Man. I really always integrate into our sustainability talks that "Spider-Man says 'With great power comes great responsibility,'" and that certainly is the case here with healthcare and the impact that we can have on the environment and on sustainability.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Again, well said. I really relish further conversations and further efforts in this area. We talk about certain climate-related aspects and we think of them in terms of property values and maybe crops and things like that, which are clearly part and parcel, very important, but things like air pollution and various other components are really involved as well. Isn't that fair to say?
Jason Bell:
Absolutely. In fact, air pollution is probably worldwide the largest environmental pollutant that contributes to avoidable death, early morbidity and mortality, and so really, that's something that we, as these large anchor institutions, it's not just Baptist Health, it's any other large health organization, we think that we can have really direct and powerful impact on improving, excuse me, air quality in the communities that we serve.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
It's actually an under-recognized cardiac risk factor as well. People concentrate on cholesterol and lipids and blood pressure and smoking, appropriately, but air pollution/air quality actually impacts your cardiac risk as well, as well as other conditions.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Going to Baptist efforts in sustainability, we'll start with air quality. We'll start with things like HVACs and things like that. Is healthcare in general considered to be leading in this? You mentioned that very few healthcare systems are really paying attention to this. How is Baptist leading in this area?
Jason Bell:
Absolutely. It starts off with a commitment to making sure that our facilities are designed in a way that don't contribute to adverse conditions in the local community, so things you can do is really transition away from incinerators, just basic ways of how you get rid of your waste and moving to something that produces just less toxic particles into the airstream. That's number one and that's not easy. That's a large capital investment that many older facilities, they've relied on that for their waste stream, and so transitioning to a different waste stream is a costly upfront investment, but one that obviously pays its dividends in the future, especially when it comes to the community's health, so that's really an area where we're leading, where we make sure that our facilities moving forward are built to LEED standards or similar, and so those are environmentally-conscious and sustainability-driven ways in which you can construct facilities to lessen the environmental impact in the communities.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Baptist is taking a lead at a cost to perform environmentally-friendly builds and constructions and retrofits. What about things like supply items? Again, something that I'm involved with in my roles. Explain how Baptist pays both attention and leads in those areas as well regarding single-use items and other ways that we can help our environment.
Jason Bell:
Sure. Historically, healthcare is very sensitive to reusing of items, for probably obvious reasons. We want to reduce exposures, we want to make sure that we've got infection control in mind, but in reality, many of the materials that we use are things that can be appropriately repurposed and reused. When we look at topics like greening the OR, the OR is actually one of the areas that is the largest contributor to environmental waste, both on just the volume of waste that comes out of the OR, all of these single packets where we open and just throw out right away, and if we used one of the materials, we still have to throw away everything that was in the packet if it was unused. That's huge. The other is the amount of anesthetic gas that actually escapes ORs and goes into the atmosphere is probably one of the largest, if not the largest contributor to poor air quality immediately around and adjacent to a healthcare facility, and so being able to create operating rooms where those are mitigated is important. That's something that we have pay attention to.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Again, I think the importance of this to the listeners is the kind of detail that goes into assessing everything we do within the healthcare system, including, like I said, supplies as well as houseware, eliminating waste. People don't think of it in those terms, but they all do make a difference. They negatively impact our environment and our climate when we don't pay attention to it and we think we can make impact by paying attention under your leadership and that of others. Let's go through a couple of terms you mentioned and break them down a little bit: green, LEED-certified. Again, you articulated a little bit what it means. What are we really think of when we're talking about green initiatives or the green spectrum? Talk a little bit about that.
Jason Bell:
One of the biggest challenges, and at the same time, the biggest opportunity that comes into play when you're really focused on addressing these topics is that there's not one singular definition. It really is up to every organization, any entity, to really define what does this mean for them, and so at Baptist Health, when we were really wanting to focus in this area, we reached out to community members, our employees, our patients, and our physicians, and asked, "What does this mean to you? What's important with this very large domain of green and sustainability?" Honestly, we were very surprised with some of the answers that we got back. We heard everything from recycling and eco-friendly and reduce waste, which we probably anticipated, but we also heard things like education, health, cost reduction, accountability, measures, and so it was just a very broad spectrum, and so we thought the best way to move forward was to plot all of these various responses.
Jason Bell:
What we developed was what we call the "green spectrum." If you can visualize that this is a spectrum that as you progress down that line, you're adding on responsibility, and so on the early part of that spectrum, we have what we call "greenwashing," which really is when organizations only embark on these initiatives really from a PR and marketing perspective, so it's doing good, it's engaging employees, but the focus here is really on branding. That is important, but it is also the earliest part of the spectrum.
Jason Bell:
As you get a little bit more sophisticated and move down that spectrum, we look at what we now called "green." Green is efficient use of resources while minimizing the harmful impact on the environment, so there's a big focus there on cost reduction. If you go a little bit further down the spectrum and you then come across sustainability, which really is operating in a way that ensures long-term viability without compromising the community. It's a focus on local sourcing of talent, of local supplies, and local partners. Finally, the most mature, robust iteration of this at the end of the spectrum is social responsibility. Social responsibility bundles all of those other aspects earlier in the spectrum, but adds on a focus to ethics, financial support of others, and volunteerism. It really is when the organization is accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and to the public.
Jason Bell:
That's the spectrum. I'll just add that no organization exclusively lives in any one of those phases, there's a constant back and forth, but at Baptist Health, what we've committed to do is, as often as possible, be as far down that spectrum as we can.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Clearly leading in that area. I love the concept that it's more than just about the things we do, but it's also about the people and our engagement with the community and education. I think that really differentiates us and how we approach it from others. I know the opening of West Kendall was a key moment in Baptist Health's history regarding sustainability and responsibility in this area. Explain why a little bit and how important that accomplishment was.
Jason Bell:
Sure. West Kendall Baptist Hospital, the first new non-replacement hospital built in Miami in 35 years, opened in 2011. I had the pleasure of being employee number eight of that facility, so I really got to see it come from the ground up. It was really our signature commitment at the time to sustainability and corporate social responsibility. We made a concerted effort to build that facility to the highest standards as it relates to environmental impact, and so at the time, we were only the second hospital in the state of Florida that was built to Gold LEED certification. LEED, as I mentioned earlier, it's a designation from the US Green Building Council, which certifies facilities, not just hospitals, to attest that they've been built and they can operate in a way that not only reduces environmental impact, but also engages the community around them. That was a $250 million investment that Baptist Health made to that West Kendall community when we built that facility to those standards.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
"LEED" is spelled L-E-E-D, just for those that hear the term quite a bit. There's certain terms we use. Want to make sure people understand. But that is a certification that is well-deserved and hard-earned.
Jason Bell:
Absolutely.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
It was something that was planned from the beginning to build for speaking to the needs of the community you serve. Yeah.
Jason Bell:
I can give some quick examples. I'm sorry. I can give quick examples to the audience of some of the things that really earn that designation, that LEED designation.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Please.
Jason Bell:
Some things you might see in a Gold LEED building like West Kendall Baptist Hospital that you might not see in others, all of the flat surfaces in that facility, all the flat roofs, as an example, are all painted white with this very shiny, reflective coating. For those that you remember, elementary science will know that white reflects heat, it doesn't absorb, and so by reflecting off all of the heat from those flat surfaces, it actually reduces the burden on the cooling equipment and the HVAC systems within the facilities. The hospital uses about 20% less water than other structures of similar size because there were two retention ponds actually built on the campus. What that does is any time that there's rain around that facility, the water, because of the gradient, flows into those ponds and there's a pumping system that pumps out that water and that's actually the water that's used to irrigate all the green space on the campus. There is electric vehicles, charging stations, there's solar panels now on campus, and even a grow-to-heal garden where that facility grows much of its own produce that's then served in the cafeteria.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
As you said, this was planned. It was a collaboration between hospital administrators and the community stakeholders. The benefits are being evidenced with West Kendall about this hospital, not just the LEED Gold certification, but also the actual results in terms of the energy utilization stuff. How about the Baptist employees? Do you find that our employees are getting involved in these initiatives and they have a sense of accountability and pride? What's the engagement with our employees?
Jason Bell:
This was probably one of our biggest aha moments. Shortly after we opened the West Kendall Baptist Hospital facility, we started asking new employees to that organization why they chose that facility. Why not one of our other sister hospitals? Why not another organization altogether? We were honestly shocked when we saw the results of that survey. We found that the majority of respondents who were new to Baptist Health and who completed that survey said the reason they chose to join us at that facility was because of the sustainability efforts and the LEED certification of that facility. It really was, again, this aha to us that not only was it the right thing to do for the community, it's a differentiator. It helps us to recruit and retain our incredible talent and so we've used that learning as we've moved forward in other areas within the organization.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Air pollution, energy utilization, water safety, crops, and our food supply all inherently impact our health and they're all impacted by construction and the way we do business at Baptist Health and we think we're doing things that, again, engagement with the community will lead towards providing these safer and sustainable ways of it benefiting rather than negatively impacting our environment. Again, a great credit to you and the team for doing that. Any final thoughts or any final comments or anything you want to reemphasize before we wrap up?
Jason Bell:
Sure. I'll just add that in addition to the commitment to facilities and resource utilization, the other lesson learned as we've been on this sustainability journey is really to put a focus on education, and so through our efforts, we really focus that education in two areas. The first is making sure that our leaders at Baptist Health understand the importance of sustainability, so we send various senior leaders from all of our different areas on these green immersion tours, and so that includes recycling facility tours, Everglades, boat rides. We take them on walking tours of all local parks, really, because unless you are immersed in it, unless you are familiar with it, it's harder to advocate for it, and so we found that once these leaders have gone through these immersions, it makes them energized to go back to their teams and think about how they can contribute to these initiatives.
Jason Bell:
Then the second part of that is really educating the community, so a lot of our efforts are around bringing education to local schools and local community groups on the importance of sustainability, both from an economic perspective, as well as a health perspective. A lot of great work over the years on bringing in elementary schools, high schools, our veterans groups into educational opportunities to learn about, excuse me, how to save money towards your water and electric bill and what are the benefits of the environment of doing that, how to recycle the right way, and it's just been really great to see those community members really engaged in that education and then taking it a step further and then them bringing that education to their larger groups, so education really goes hand in hand with this facility's commitment and so we have both of those commitments at Baptist Health.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Which is great. It starts with our own awareness and bringing awareness to our own leaders and then also raising the awareness of the community, then creating the execution for things that have the positive impact, which we're doing as well. Great stuff, Jason. I really appreciate your efforts as well as spending time on the podcast to relay to the listeners both the importance of our approach, and more important, the importance of the benefits, as we said, of these activities.
Dr. Jonathan Fialkow:
Before we sign off, to the listeners, we can really use your help and feedback. Please take a moment to give this podcast a five-star review on whichever platform you listen to us on. Have a comment or a suggestion for a future topic, then please email us at baptisthealthtalk@baptisthealth.net. That's baptisthealthtalk@baptisthealth.net. We'd love to hear from you. Thanks for listening. Until next time, stay safe and mask up.
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