The healthcare industry lags other sectors when it comes to sustainability efforts, and few of the nation's 49 largest healthcare organizations are concerned about pollution, waste generation, disposal and water use, a new study published in JAMA Network Open suggests.
For the study, "Assessment of Environmental Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility Reporting by Large Health Care Organizations," authors analyzed 49 healthcare companies included on lists such as the Fortune 500, S&P 500 and Forbes 100 Largest Charities to determine whether these organizations were making sustainability efforts. The researchers looked at sustainability reports and pored over organization websites.
They found few health organizations, 12 percent of all health-related companies including private and charitable organizations, had sustainability initiatives.
Further, in 2016, 78 percent of non-healthcare Fortune 500 companies reported sustainability efforts, compared to 50 percent of healthcare companies. Among non-healthcare S&P 500 companies, 82 percent reported sustainability efforts, compared to 33 percent of healthcare organizations.
"The take-home message is that large healthcare organizations in the U.S., which have become a major sector in American industry, are not doing a good job of putting sustainability forward," study co-author Phil Landrigan, MD, a professor at New York City-based Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai told Reuters Health.
While sustainability efforts may lag in the health sector, the authors say there is hope for a more sustainable future because more hospitals have been jumping into sustainability challenges.