SUSTAINABILITY
Environmental teams have been
created for each facility, responsible for both the continuous improvement of environmental performance and the operational implementation of the environmental programme. Teams meet at regular intervals and environmental concerns as well as those projects that have an ecological impact are dealt with. When assembling the environmental team, care is taken to ensure that all departments of the respective hospital or care facility are represented as far as possible. The environmentally conscious
behaviour of employees contributes significantly to improving environmental performance. To integrate environmental protection into everyday work, all important guidelines are available on an intranet. In addition to information in the employee magazine, employees are informed about the environmental impact and environmental performance of the respective site through information events and training courses, regular posts in the site-specific employee apps, notices, or posters.
CO2 neutrality within reach
In the course of the EMAS certifications, the company management set the goal of halving CO2
emissions by 2025 compared
to the base year 2017 and achieving climate neutrality by 2030. Thanks to the motivation and commitment of all employees, the milestone goal of halving CO2
early as 2022 with 48 per cent. The goal of a CO2
emissions was almost reached as neutral energy supply by
completely phasing out fossil fuels (oil and natural gas) was brought forward by four years and is now planned for 2026. However, it is important to point out
that a complete avoidance of CO2 emissions is probably not technically possible from today’s perspective. Diesel- powered emergency generators in hospitals or special vehicles of a company fire brigade cannot currently be technically replaced by sustainable emission-free products. From today’s perspective, carbon zero is therefore only 98 per cent achievable for an operator of hospitals and care and nursing facilities.
Examples already implemented By 2022, photovoltaic systems with a total output of just over 600 kWp (kilowatt peak, defined as the maximum output of a photovoltaic system in kilowatts) were put into operation. Some facilities of the Brothers of Saint John of God have existed for 400 years and are mostly located in historic city centres (Vienna, Graz, Salzburg, etc.). Accordingly, many visual and technical requirements had to be solved with regard to the protection of historical monuments. For example, during the renovation of
IFHE DIGEST 2023 Photovoltaic system on the roof of the St. Veit/Glan hospital (Carinthia, Austria).
a home for the elderly in Linz, a solar thermal system with a collector area of 200 square metres and a photovoltaic system with an output of 31 kWp were installed. By using district heating from biomass
power plants or industrial waste heat, heating systems with fossil fuels are no longer necessary. A hospital in Graz, for example, will be heated in future with waste heat from a nearby paper factory. In Kritzendorf, a retirement home was
able to save 400,000 litres of heating oil annually by connecting to a local biomass heating plant and 54 per cent of CO2
emissions in a very short time
by installing a photovoltaic system with 140 kWp. An extremely successful example of
sustainable energy production can be found in Kainbach near Graz in a facility for people with disabilities. Part of this facility site is a forest area. The management of this forest includes the production of wood chips, which are used in a newly constructed heating system for ecological heat generation.
The construction of a photovoltaic system with an output of 100 kWp additionally contributes to the sustainable reduction of CO2
emissions. A central purchasing department is a
key position in environmental protection. The more ecologically conscious purchasing is, and the more sustainable the purchased products are, the greater the benefit for the environment and thus also an indirect reduction of CO2 emissions. A procurement catalogue was therefore developed for the sustainable procurement of medical and nursing consumables and implemented at all locations. This is because disposable items are increasingly being used, especially in medicine, which means that the amount of waste is constantly increasing. Another reason for higher waste generation is that the life cycle of many products is shortening. For example, 80 per cent of all products are thrown away after a single use and 99 per cent of materials become waste after six weeks. Great potential for the reduction of
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©HF-pictures
©HF-pictures
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