Health Care Reform

A company picnic with just one trash bin left over? For a health care organization with 3,000 staff over 24 hours? Impossible?

Not only possible, but thanks to the Providence St. Vincent Green Team in Portland, Oregon, it actually happened. It started four years ago when Providence Health & Services chose to adopt higher standards of sustainable practices as their mission for stewardship. Their Green Team of volunteer employees was formed at the same time.

The Green Team could have been content with working on health care practices, but they took it a step further. They showed staff members just how "painless" a sustainable meal could be by using bulk containers, corn-based cutlery, and recyclable, compostable and reusable products. They even used the green napkins left over from the Christmas event (saving money along the way).

This event received high accolades from the staff. They also received favorable media coverage--something the health care industry isn't seeing much of right now.

So what was in that one trash bin you ask....over 2,000 fudge bar wrappers!