Kaiser Permanente Colorado wins national environmental award

Denver, CO— Since 2002, Kaiser Permanente Colorado has recycled enough paper and cardboard to save 323,000 trees and 13.3 million gallons of water, one effort of many that earned the organization the 2006 National Environmental Leadership award from Hospitals for a healthy Environment (H2E).

The Leadership Award is given each year to facilities or health care systems that are setting the standard for environmental programs and policies. H2E recognizes organizations for embracing safer building products, energy and water efficiency, safe working practices and a commitment to public health demonstrated through the reduction of waste.

H2E recognized Kaiser Permanente Colorado’s efforts to drastically reduce waste and the use of hazardous chemicals. In 1990, a team called The Eco Team was founded at Kaiser Permanente Colorado to create a regional environmental policy. Today, there are Eco Team members at each Kaiser Permanente Colorado location working to uphold the policy. Since 2002 Kaiser Permanente Colorado has:

• Recycled more than 25,000 mercury-containing fluorescent lamps.
• Recycled more than 1,900 tons of paper and cardboard and 52 tons of plastic.
• Decreased the use and disposal of photo-processing chemicals by an estimated 70 percent by converting the Radiology Department to digital imaging in almost all cases.