Penn Medicine Princeton Health received a 2021 Environmental Excellence Award from Practice Greenhealth, a nonprofit membership organization promoting positive environmental stewardship and best practices in the healthcare community.
The award recognized efforts to build sustainability into processes at Princeton Medical Center (PMC) and across the Princeton Health system.
“We are in the early stages of a multiyear strategy to examine everything we do to promote responsible, sustainable operations,” said Greg Evans, director of sustainability for Princeton Health. “As a healthcare organization, our first priority is the health and well-being of our patients, staff, and the greater community, and that begins with minimizing our impact on the environment in which we live.”
Evans said Princeton Health is considering a number of projects to decrease energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions, reduce waste, increase recycling and reprocessing, and purchase more sustainable products. Eliminating food waste from going to the landfill and sourcing more local, sustainable foods are key goals in the near future.
At the PMC campus in Plainsboro, recent activities have included an evaluation of the cogeneration plant’s performance and an assessment of the feasibility of installing electric vehicle charging stations.
Significant projects are planned at Princeton House Behavioral Health as well. Work will begin soon to install solar panels at the Princeton House inpatient campus on Herrontown Road and an outpatient center on Mount Lucas Road in Princeton, N.J. A separate plan to retrofit the inpatient campus with energy efficient LED lighting is proposed for next year.