WRNMMC, Bethesda, Md.  –   Walter Reed National Military Medical Center received the Greenhealth Partner for Change Award from Practice Greenhealth, the nation's leading organization dedicated to environmental sustainability in health care. The award was presented during the CleanMed 2023 Conference, held May 23-25 in Pittsburgh.

CleanMed is the premier national environmental conference for leaders in health care sustainability, and Maj. Jesse Rivera-Rosario, a perioperative services clinical nurse specialist and a member of Walter Reed’s Sustainability Team, was at the conference to receive the award for Walter Reed.

“The Greenhealth Partner for Change Award recognizes superior performance in environmental sustainability, covering a range of different sustainability programs and activities,” according to Practice Greenhealth officials. “This award recognizes your organization’s ongoing commitment to improving its environmental performance and your efforts to build sustainability and resiliency into the operations and culture of your institution.”

“The Defense Health Agency’s (DHA) Sustainability Team asked me to present on Walter Reed’s sustainability practices at this year’s CleanMed Conference,” Rivera-Rosario stated. His presentation was titled, “Building the Bench: Securing Leadership Support to Drive Sustainability.”

He explained “leadership support is essential for success” in an organization’s sustainability effort. He stated that it is also important to partner with stakeholders who share’s the organization’s vision for sustainability. “Emphasize benefits and have a plan to pivot.”

Army Capt. (Dr.) Renuka Rees leads Walter Reed’s diverse Sustainability Team that includes members from the hospital’s facilities staff of engineering and construction, housekeeping, hazardous materials, regulated waste management, and operations and maintenance. The team also includes individuals from Walter Reed’s Nutritional Services, Operating Room, and other services. Naval Facilities Engineering Systems Command’s (NAVFAC) utilities and waste management staff members are also on the team.

“Sustainability means the use of natural products and energy in a way that does not harm the environment,” Rees explained. The assistant service chief of Pediatric Primary Care Medical Home at Walter Reed and an assistant professor of Pediatrics at the Uniformed Services University (USU), Rees said the team was established last August and has been working to support more sustainable practices at Walter Reed. These include “finding ways to reduce plastic use, increase recycling, and reduce the purchase of anesthetic gases that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions.”

“Climate change, environmental degradation, and pollution are inextricably linked to health,” stated Army Capt. (Dr.) Emad Madha, a surgery resident who is also on Walter Reed’s Sustainability Team.

“Hospitals are large, energy-intensive enterprises that generate millions of tons of waste annually. These factors contribute to the damage to the environment that bring on worsening health outcomes. Climate change is affecting health through heat waves, worsening air quality, changes in patterns of vector-borne diseases, water-related infections, and trauma from extreme weather events like hurricanes, flooding, and wildfires. By decreasing the environmental footprint of the hospital, Walter Reed’s Sustainability Committee is working to secure a better world for our servicemembers, retirees, their families, and the people of our nation,” Madha added.

“The Department of Defense has long recognized climate change as a threat multiplier to the nation’s security and global stability,” Madha continued. “To better protect our country, the DOD has been preparing for resiliency and adaptation in the face of the challenges brought on by a changing climate and increasingly frequent and severe extreme weather events. Recently, the Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force published climate strategies, aiming to decrease greenhouse gas emissions of the services and prepare warfighters for the future. DHA’s sustainability initiative seeks to do the same for the medical force and aims to decrease the emissions of the U.S. health care system, that accounts for an estimated 10 percent of the nation’s total greenhouse gas emissions,” he added.

Walter Reed has a long history focused on environmental preservation. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt personally selected the Bethesda site, “with its rolling green hills and small natural spring-fed pond” for construction of the original hospital with an expectation that the nature site would enhance the delivery of care and healing.

When the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) recommendations became law calling for the merger of Walter Reed Army Medical Center and National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, regulation limited construction expansion to preserve green space on the campus. In 2011, WRNMMC officially opened with new “green” facilities.

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) recognized Walter Reed with a 2011 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold award for the medical center’s newly constructed buildings. USGBC develops the LEED green building rating system that provides third-party verification of green buildings to create a “healthier, more sustainable future.”

According to USGBC, “LEED provides a framework for healthy, highly efficient, and cost-saving green buildings. Energy-efficient buildings help reduce pollution and improve outdoor air quality in major industrialized areas, making LEED a critical tool in reducing smog. Improving indoor air quality can reduce absenteeism and work hours affected by asthma, respiratory allergies, depression and stress, and leads to and self-reported improvements in productivity,” USGBC officials added.