Keynote Speeches

2008 Eco Care Conference

Monday, October 20, 2008

8:15 a.m. – 8:30 a.m.

Welcome from Cliff Nordal

Check against delivery.

Welcome Slide

Good morning and welcome to Eco Care 2008.

My name is Cliff Nordal and I am the President and Chief Executive Officer of London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph’s Health Care, London. This is the first conference of its kind in Canada, bringing together health care providers and environmental stewards for a two-day conference that is sure to inspire ecological stewardship within the Canadian Health Care sector.

Slides from Presentation

Let me welcome and acknowledge our guests and speakers from across the country, and around the globe. With us today is Simon Miller, Principle Consultant of Best Foot Forward, a leading sustainability consulting firm from Oxford, England. Welcome to our conference speakers from London’s academic institutions, the University of Western Ontario and Fanshawe College, and this evening, we will welcome Justin Trudeau, recently elected Liberal MP from the riding of Papineau in Montreal, at our Gala dinner.

Slide 1 – Health Care and the Environment

Human beings, technology and the organizations we have built, all contribute towards a negative impact on our environment. Yet we, through changes in our own behaviour, together with the application of technology, we do have the capability to create change and make a positive impact. You are here today because you understand that vital link between health care and the environment. Many of you are already doing great work in your organizations to protect our natural resources and are leaders for environmental change.

It is our hope that by hosting Eco Care 2008 we will bring together health care providers and environmental experts, to learn about practices and procedures that will help our organizations protect the natural environment. Importantly, as health care institutions we need to show leadership in sustaining a healthy environment.

Slide 2 – Hospital sites of LHSC

Our organization has taken a long, hard look at our operating capacity’s effect on the environment. We recognized the need to bring about change in our institution to better server the community in which we operate.

LHSC’s energy breakdown of consumed gas, water and electricity spans over three hospital sites, 10,000 staff and more than one million patients cared for each year.

We have used the ecological footprint method to calculate the impact of our operations on the Earth’s renewable resources. We are using this information as a benchmarking tool to improve our ecological performance.

LHSC’s Facilities Management Department and Ecological Stewardship Program have started the process towards reducing our footprint and have developed a holistic approach to environmental stewardship. We have concentrated on four areas for improvement; Energy Consumption, Waste Production, Hospital Grounds and Procurement.

Slide 3 – Energy Consumption: Retrofit Activities

In approaching our organization’s energy consumption, we reviewed all aspects of energy utilization. From new construction of facility spaces to retrofitting existing systems and equipment, our goal has been to reduce our global consumption of energy resources.

One example is the building of a back pressure steam driven turbine on our hospital grounds. This turbine allows us to generate our own electricity and increased our megawatt capacity from five to seven.

To date from energy awareness campaigns and hospital initiatives, LHSC has reduced our energy consumption by $1.8 million and reduced our annual greenhouse gas emissions by 14 million kilograms. This is the equivalent to removing over 2,000 cars from the road!

Slide 4 – Waste Production: Recycling

To address the issue of waste production, LHSC has actively promoted and encouraged various types of recycling efforts.

New recycling units have been added and displayed throughout the organization both inside and outside on the hospital grounds, for patients, staff and visitors to use. But we don’t just recycle paper and plastic - we also recycle old computers, monitors and printers. Our engineering department has even collected over 6,900 fluorescent light bulbs for recycling!
Our Sterile Processing department began collecting old stainless steel equipment that had become to outdated for current medical procedures. This equipment is recycled for use by other organizations outside of our hospital walls.

Slide 5 – Waste Production/Reduction: New Environmental Initiative

This year we introduced a pilot project to remove the hay on one of our hospital’s grounds. As you can see, we let the large area grow naturally, without pesticides. Then the area of dried grasses and hay was cut and bailed, by a local farmer to be used as feed for horses. This is an initiative we hope to continue annually.

Slide 6 – Hospital Grounds

This past summer LHSC created Alex’s Butterfly Garden at Victoria Hospital. This garden was in tribute to Alex Hart by her parents Lesley and Gordon. With the help of our Engineering Services department, the Hart’s were able to create a peaceful garden for all our staff, patients and visitors. The specific flowers and trees planted were chosen to attract butterflies, one of Alex’s favorite things. We hope that this space will allow all of our visitors the chance to reconnect with nature.

Our lawn care company Clintar uses pesticide alternatives on our grounds, including proper fertilization of the landscape, increased core aeration and mulching.

Slide 7 – Procurement

Our purchasing choices and decisions are weighted with environmental considerations in mind. We strive to reduce or eliminate all products at LHSC that are proven harmful to the environment and long-term health.

We are proud to say that our organization is now 100% mercury free. Over the last year, equipment containing mercury, such thermometers, blood pressure cuffs and esophageal dilators, was collected and replaced with equipment from companies who do not use mercury.

Our hospital printing company, DATA switched to Envirographics 100% recycled paper in 2007. While the visual difference in switching paper was nearly impossible to detect, the positive impact in the past year has equaled the saving of 683 trees, 18,720 gallons of oil, 336,000 gallons of water and 196,800 kilowatt hours of energy.

Slide 8 – Energy Hero

The LHSC Energy Hero program was adopted in 2005. This programs gives our employee’s a chance to nominate and recognize a colleague who actively makes choices to reduce their energy consumption at work. We celebrate our heroes on the website, and recognize them in the staff newsletter.

Annually we hold and Energy Awareness Week at our three hospitals. This is our opportunity to broadly inform our staff, patients and visitors of the environmental initiatives we are implementing and planning to help protect and preserve the resources of their community. We are consistently working towards increasing the awareness of environmental issues at LHSC.

Slide 9 – Award

This year LHSC, along with St. Joseph’s Health Care, London, received the 2008 Energy and Environmental Stewardship Award from the Canadian College of Health Services Executives. This award, made possible by a grant from Honeywell, recognizes progressive health care organizations with programs that demonstrate environmental responsibility by reducing energy usage, preserving natural resources and having effective waste diversion solutions. We are proud of the work our Ecological Stewardship team is doing and support the initiatives they put in place within the organization.

Slide 10 – Closing Slide

This is only a summary of what work we have done at LHSC to reduce our environmental footprint. If this peaked your interest, I invite you to attend this morning’s session with Phil Renaud, Director of Facilities Management LHSC to for a more in-depth look at the work being done by our organization.

Over the next two days you will hear from speakers renowned for their work in environmental stewardship. We hope that the knowledge and insight you gain here will help you pioneer your environmental course when you return to your health care institutions.

Enjoy the conference,

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