CleanMed 2026: Essential Hospitals Make Sustainability a Strategic Priority

CleanMed, an annual meeting of Health Care Without Harm and Practice Greenhealth, convenes health care leaders, clinicians, facility and operations staff, supply chain partners, and other stakeholders committed to advancing environmental sustainability in health care. At this year's meeting, in St. Louis, members of America's Essential Hospitals were front and center, proving their leadership in sustainability despite the unique challenges they face.

Odette Peril, regional vice president of support services at RWJBarnabas Health, presents the health system's sustainability action plan and strategic pillars.

As anchor institutions that provide care across the continuum and train the health care workforce, essential hospitals operate in an increasingly complex environment marked by financial pressures, supply chain disruptions, and climate-related disasters. In response, many are investing in strategies that strengthen operational resilience while improving efficiency and reducing costs. Because health care delivery relies on energy-intensive facilities and generates significant waste, there are many opportunities to improve resource stewardship, reduce unnecessary expenses, and enhance system reliability. Through operational improvements, essential hospitals are supporting business continuity, enhancing emergency preparedness, and ensuring uninterrupted care during times of disruption.

Many of the communities our members serve-including cities like New York, Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans, Boston, Atlanta, and Los Angeles-have experienced decades of socioeconomic barriers. They also are disproportionately affected by disasters, infrastructure failures, public health emergencies, and other climate-related events. Essential hospitals are on the front lines of these crises, offering not only emergency medical care but also long-term recovery, public health education, economic stability, and safety following emergencies.

CleanMed 2026 highlighted how health systems are translating sustainability goals into measurable action. Essential hospitals demonstrated that environmental sustainability no longer can be approached as a standalone initiative; rather, it must be woven into the enterprise strategy. Presenters focused on practical tactics, measurable outcomes, and scalable approaches that other health systems can adapt.

VIEW SUSTAINABILITY AS A BUSINESS STRATEGY

Sustainability strengthens operational resilience, improves patient safety, reduces costs, and advances long-term financial stewardship.

Key Ideas

• Sustainability creates value beyond traditional return on investment (ROI), with benefits that extend beyond the original budget to multiple departments. This can make calculating ROI challenging.
• Investments in emissions reduction, infrastructure modernization, waste reduction, and energy efficiency deliver measurable financial and operational benefits that benefit the entire organization.
• Innovative financing models, low-cost interventions, and scalable operational changes can achieve sustainability goals while supporting bottom-line performance.

CleanMed Session Spotlight:

The plenary session featured member hospital leaders Carol Gomes, MS, CEO of Stony Brook University Hospital, in Stony Brook, N.Y., and Eugene Washington, MD, chancellor emeritus of Duke Health, in Durham, N.C., as well as leaders from Stanford Health Care and the American Association of Medical Colleges. Panelists stressed that leadership should create a culture in which sustainability is viewed as integral, not optional. Gomes highlighted Stony Brook University Hospital's curtain wall replacement project, which improved energy efficiency, indoor temperature regulation, and patient comfort. She emphasized that successful sustainability initiatives require a visible leadership commitment and tailored messaging for executives, governance, clinicians, and operational teams. Communicating measurable outcomes and celebrating early successes are key to building long-term momentum.

COMMUNITY-BASED STRATEGIES AND PARTNERSHIPS ADVANCE SUSTAINABILITY

Anna Speed, director of sustainable design and resiliency at NYC Health + Hospitals, and Gabrielle Sobel, global principal for climate and health at Jacobs, present Jacobs' All-Hazards Health System Resilience Framework and share lessons from its implementation at NYC Health + Hospitals.

Presenters linked sustainability work to broader community health and equity priorities by highlighting initiatives that target food insecurity, climate-related health disparities, disaster resilience, and community-based interventions. Essential hospitals' innovations demonstrate how sustainability strategies can directly support underserved patient populations by improving access to healthy food, strengthening climate preparedness, and addressing social and environmental determinants of health.

Additionally, presenters emphasized collaboration as a critical component of these efforts. Essential hospitals are partnering with community-based organizations, pharmaceutical companies, consultants, local food providers, and advocacy groups to expand their impact, improve community health, and strengthen system resilience.

CleanMed Session Spotlight:

Boston Medical Center (BMC) presented several initiatives that depend on community-based strategies and strong partnerships. Olivia Thomas, MS, RD, LDN, director of nutrition innovation and implementation, presented on the Nourishing Our Communities program, a group of initiatives that tackle food insecurity through local food procurement. One initiative, Nourishing at Home, delivers food boxes directly to patients' homes through partnerships with local food and delivery providers.

Anna Goldman, MD, MPA, MPH, BMC's medical director of sustainability, spoke about a three-year waste reduction project in collaboration with biopharmaceutical company Takeda. In its first year, the team completed three waste stream audits and uncovered critical opportunities for intervention. These initiatives exemplify how BMC responds to community needs and collaborates with local and national partners to advance sustainability through collaboration with local and national partners.

CIRCULARITY MUST DRIVE PROCUREMENT STRATEGY

A key theme of the conference was the concept of circularity, a procurement strategy that prioritizes longevity, efficiency, and life cycle thinking. Circularity-based procurement focuses on acquiring products with extended product and material lifecycles, reducing waste, and minimizing environmental impact. This approach improves cost efficiency by lowering the total cost of ownership of a product, including the costs of purchase, operations, storage, and disposal. This reframing encourages health systems to make procurement decisions that consider environmental impact, long-term value, overall cost efficiency, and system resilience. It also supports efforts to reduce Scope Three emissions-indirect emissions that occur in the upstream and downstream activities of an organization-by taking an intentional approach to purchasing and supply chain management. Circularity goes beyond recycling-it is about health, security, and economic well-being for the communities hospitals serve.

Circularity also helps health systems build more resilient supply chains by reducing reliance on single-use products. In 2024, Hurricane Helene damaged one of the nation's largest IV fluid manufacturing plants in North Carolina, triggering a nationwide shortage. This disruption underscored the importance of understanding product sourcing, availability, and opportunities to reuse or repurpose materials whenever possible. Ultimately, circularity aims to provide procurement leaders with a clear insight into product attributes, including material composition, durability, and potential for reuse. This supports purchasing decisions that improve both sustainability and supply chain resilience.

COMMUNITY HEALTH NEEDS ASSESSMENTS INFORM SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES

The Affordable Care Act requires all nonprofit hospitals to field a Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) every three years. CleanMed highlighted how hospitals are using this regulatory requirement as a value framework to inform sustainability and climate resilience strategies.

When developed in partnership with community-based organizations, CHNAs can identify environmental threats and strengthen relationships with organizations serving the same populations. The findings can help hospitals better understand local climate-related challenges, identify populations most affected, and address social determinants of health.

CleanMed Session Spotlight:

Nurse Educator Elizabeth Joseph, APRN, highlighted how association member Jackson Health System partnered with Florida Clinicians for Climate Action to address the health impacts of rising Miami temperatures. In addition to CHNAs, the partnership identifies climate-related health needs and barriers directly from community members through assessments conducted by trusted clinical staff. The partnership also introduced ICD-10 codes for heat-related illness, creating a standardized way to collect data, better understand climate-related health disparities, and inform targeted community interventions.

FRONT-LINE STAFF DRIVES INNOVATION

Successful sustainability initiatives thrive in organizations where the culture supports innovative problem solving among frontline staff. Throughout CleanMed, presenters highlighted projects led by clinicians, nurses, and other key staff who recognized gaps in their organizations' sustainability efforts and developed practical, scalable solutions. These examples demonstrated how fostering a culture of innovation empowers staff to create new approaches that grow into systemwide initiatives. As presenters shared, a successful small project has the potential to scale up to target systemic sustainability issues, even in environments with limited dedicated sustainability personnel.

CleanMed Session Spotlight:

Deanna Benner, MSN, environmental health and sustainability manager at association member ChristianaCare, in Newark, Del., shared how a grassroots effort led by front-line staff evolved into a systemwide sustainability program. An individual passion for reducing waste grew into an organizational initiative that has repurposed more than $1.2 million in supplies and diverted over 48,000 pounds of waste from landfills, demonstrating how staff-led innovation can deliver measurable environmental and operational benefits.

CONCLUSION

CleanMed 2026 reinforced that environmental sustainability has become an essential component of resilient, efficient, and high-quality health care operations. Across the conference, members of America's Essential Hospitals demonstrated that sustainability initiatives can improve operational performance, reduce costs, strengthen community partnerships, enhance emergency preparedness, and support reliable access to care during times of disruption. Meaningful progress is achievable through integrating sustainability as a business strategy, strong leadership, and cross-sector collaboration.

To learn more about sustainability at essential hospitals, visit essentialcommunities.org. Additionally, Essential Hospitals Institute hosts a monthly Facilities, Preparedness, and Efficiency interest group where members share priorities, concerns, and experiences related to strengthening hospital operations and infrastructure. To learn more about the group and join, visit our website.

SUSTAINABILITY RESOURCES

• Vital Conditions for Health and Well-Being Framework
• BMC's Year-One Findings of Collaboration with Takeda to Address Greenhouse Gas Emissions Hotspots in Healthcare
  • Waste Audit Guide for Pharmacy Settings
• NYC Health + Hospitals' Climate Health Champions Toolkit
• World Health Organization guidance for climate resilient and environmentally sustainable health care facilities
• Leaders of Academic Health Systems as Drivers of Climate Action and Sustainability
• Florida Clinicians for Climate Action
  • Project Climate Health Outreach Team (C-HOT)
• CHARME Action Collaborative