UHN Environmental Initiatives

Greening at UHN

Eliminating bottled water – With UHN’s in-house caterer, Core Catering, no longer offering bottled water since 2008, UHN has eliminated of over 30,000 500 ml plastic bottles. Larger water coolers are also being phased out from the hospital, with many departments having removed them all ready.

Energy awareness program – With its TLC – Care to Conserve energy management program, UHN is simultaneously addressing both the human and the technology potential for saving energy. Through retrofit and retro-commissioning programs to optimize building energy use, combined with social marketing to influence staff behaviour and perceptions around energy conservation, TLC recognizes that combining people and technology will result in far greater efficiencies than if each of these areas were dealt with individually. In 2009 several initiatives including LED lighting trials, installation of new energy efficient chillers, control upgrades and a comprehensive awareness program helped UHN reduce its energy use by 36,000 gigajoules in the process saving the hospital over $600,000 a year in utility costs.

Recycling – Every year, UHN uses around 50 million sheets of paper – that’s equivalent to over 15,000 trees. In 2009, UHN recycled 415 tonnes of paper, saving approximately 7,000 trees.

Styrofoam reduction – Though the amount of Styrofoam UHN uses is relatively small, the hospital is actively looking for ways to reduce its use. A key milestones so far has been the substitution of Styrofoam cups with compostable, bio-based alternatives by Core Catering.

Composting – With its recently expanded composting program, UHN managed to divert around 149,000 kilograms of organic waste from landfill in 2009, a number that we hope to see increase as the program continues to grow and improve.

Clean commuting – Being located on main public transit routes, and with a UHN cycling population of around 1,500 staff, clean commuting by staff is one of the ways UHN can reduce its carbon footprint. With this in mind, UHN’s Sustainable Transportation group looks at ways of encouraging cycling, carpooling, public transport use and other cleaner ways for staff and guests to get to and from the hospital.

Green Cleaning and Maintenance Products – UHN continues to strive for a green alternative wherever possible, with several new products being tested at any given time. Some of the key products regularly used at UHN that are now third party eco-certified include a floor cleaning product and the soap found in most hospital washrooms.

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