The Premier healthcare
alliance today announced a climate and energy collaborative focused on reducing
the healthcare industry's carbon footprint.
SPHERE - Securing Proven Healthcare Energy Reduction (for the) Ecosystem
- will build on Premier’s environmental leadership and commitment
to a healthy environment, focusing on reducing industry energy costs and greenhouse
emissions.
Healthcare ranks as the country’s second most energy intensive industry,
spending more than $6.5 billion each year while experiencing double-digit cost
increases. Volatile energy prices are diverting money needed for critical healthcare
quality and safety improvements. Hospitals are the sector’s largest energy
consumer and producer of greenhouse gases (GHG). The industry’s reliance
on non-renewable energy sources contributes to the emission of GHG, driving
climate change and impacting public health from air pollution.
SPHERE’S primary goals are to help Premier alliance members reach measurable
targets to:
- Reduce energy cost;
- Reduce overall energy usage and GHG emissions for positive public health
impact; and
- Increase use of cleaner, renewable energy.
“Reducing our carbon footprint and contributing to the use of renewable
energy to improve the health of the communities we serve are goals we share
with Premier,” said Kenneth Ferron, vice president, administration, Covenant
Health Systems, Inc., in Lexington, Mass. “By participating in Premier’s
energy initiative, the savings we achieve in energy use and costs will go directly
to improvements in the quality of care.”
SPHERE will enable Premier members to support patient and public health through
cost-effective, environmentally sensitive energy procurement, use and management
practices. It will also bring hospitals together to share best practices and
benchmark their energy use to positively impact climate change and public health.
As part of SPHERE, Premier will collaborate with Practice Greenhealth, a new
non-profit organization and successor to Hospitals for a Healthy Environment
(H2E), Green Guide for Health Care and Healthcare Clean Energy Exchange to lead
the first large-scale, healthcare reverse auction for energy. The healthcare
focused, Web-based, electronic energy auction establishes competition among
energy suppliers to reduce prices of energy and environmental commodities (e.g.,
renewable energy certificates and carbon offsets), enabling hospitals to lock
in more stable pricing and increase their percentage of green/renewable energy
purchases.
“Practice Greenhealth is excited to partner with Premier in this energy
initiative because Premier shares Practice Greenhealth’s goals and has
demonstrated their commitment and leadership in addressing the energy crisis
and improving public health,” said Practice Greenhealth Executive Director
Bob Jarboe. “SPHERE addresses one of the greatest healthcare challenges
of the 21st century and will likely become a model for the healthcare community,
policy makers and other industries.”
“Through collaboration in SPHERE, members of the Premier alliance will
demonstrate their leadership and commitment to their communities as they effectively
address the energy and climate crisis,” said Premier Purchasing Partners
President Mike Alkire. “SPHERE will save healthcare institutions money
while decreasing healthcare’s carbon footprint through measurable reductions
in the amount of greenhouse gases and related illness and disease.”
Premier Purchasing Partners is the healthcare group purchasing industry leader
in environmental purchasing, acting as a primary source of information and advocacy.
Purchasing Partners assists with the identification of products and services
that enhance the clinical and environmental safety and health of patients and
workers. Premier is the only group purchasing organization to win the Champions
for Change award six times from Practice Greenhealth.
The SPHERE initiative is a natural expansion of Premier’s environmental
leadership program, GreenHealthy™, which includes the organization’s
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing program, as well as its internal employee-led,
corporate-wide Yes to Green program.
“There is an urgent need for an intensified national healthcare-focused
program to share expertise, tools and services,” said Premier Safety Institute
Vice President Gina Pugliese. “SPHERE will help hospitals measure their
energy usage and carbon footprint, implement cost-effective strategies for reducing
both energy usage and cost, and increase the use of clean and renewable energy.”