Environmental Stewardship at Providence: 2024 Year in Review

[6 MIN READ] 

In this article:

• Providence remains committed to work toward carbon negative by 2030 through our three-pillar strategy: WE ACT, We REACH and We SHARE.

• We have reduced carbon emissions in seven key areas of our hospitals and our conservation efforts are now saving $15 million annually.

• Collaboration, the key to our 2024 achievements, remains vital as we work to advance health equity for our patients and our communities.

Throughout 2024, Providence maintained a tight focus on the environment and our role in mitigating the climate crisis. We made great strides, and we’re so proud of everyone who helped bring our goals closer to reality. As we look back at this year’s achievements and look to the work ahead, we stand firm in our commitment: WE ACT to work toward carbon negative by 2030 TOGETHER with caregivers to reduce costs and our environmental footprint on HEALTH and justice for individuals and the communities we serve for a BETTER WORLD by caring for our common home that we will pass to future generations.

Read on to learn more about what we achieved in 2024.

Power in partnerships

We know that no one institution can solve the climate crisis, and we are proud to be part of the global conversation on the importance of decarbonization in the health care sector. This year, through our We SHARE framework, we maintained important partnerships, developed new connections, advocated for our communities and shared actionable insights.

Providence continues to serve as a model. Through our work, we broaden the awareness of environmental health and stewardship for some of our nation’s more traditional institutions, including:

• American Hospital Association
• American Medical Association
• American Nurses Association
• National Academy of Medicine
• Department of Health and Human Services
• Office of Climate Change and Health Equity
• Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

This year, we also were the first large health system to achieve The Joint Commission Sustainable Healthcare Certification. All 51 of our hospitals and associated campuses achieved certification.

Our additional partnerships prioritizing national and global sustainability include:

• Collaborative for Healthcare Action to Reduce MedTech Emissions
• Healthcare Anchor Network
• Health Care Without Harm
• Catholic Health Association of the United States
• American Society for Health Care Engineering
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• Institute for Healthcare Improvement 

We have also maintained our commitments to:

• Race to Zero
• Healthcare Anchor Network’s Climate Change Pledge
• We Are Still In

“It’s great that Providence can come to these tables with our knowledge and with our track record of what we have found that works or is challenging,” says Beth Schenk, PhD, Chief Environmental Stewardship Officer for Providence. “It’s fun and satisfying to be part of these conversations, to know that together we can do more at scale for broader impact.”

Our 2024 achievements

We have reduced carbon emissions in seven key areas at our hospitals by 18% since 2019 in Scopes 1 (direct emissions from our buildings and vehicles), 2 (emissions from purchased electricity and steam), and 3 (all other indirect emissions). As of 2024, our conservation efforts are saving $15 million annually.

This year, we achieved third-party verification of our greenhouse gas inventory. This means an independent party has validated that our reported emissions are aligned with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol.

“The verification assures us that our methods for collecting data in the WE ACT scorecard are well-designed, well done, transparent and accurate,” Schenk says. “This gives us more confidence in reporting.”

We were designated a System of Change by Practice Greenhealth, one of our nation’s leading organizations dedicated to environmental responsibility. This designation was among the 55 Environmental Excellence Awards we received from Practice Greenhealth across 30 hospitals.

We launched the Providence Center for Environmental Stewardship, a virtual platform where we share many aspects of our environmental stewardship initiative, including a resource library.

All of our hospitals are now represented by Green Teams. With the help of our Green Team Toolkit, caregivers can successfully educate, engage and advocate for operational changes.

Our hospitals continue to reduce waste by diverting it from landfills and, when possible, avoiding it altogether, as we work toward our goal to divert more than 50% of waste from landfills and hazardous streams by 2030. 

Over 100 of our health care facilities are now operating on 100% renewable electricity. This year, we also began a system-wide LED project to transition to lighting products that use less energy. We are on schedule to complete this project by 2025.

We have successfully removed desflurane, an anesthetic agent with high global warming impacts, from our system-wide formulary. We’ve also successfully deactivated wasteful piped delivery systems for nitrous oxide across 85% of our hospitals and have committed to avoiding piped systems for nitrous oxide in new buildings. This has reduced our nitrous oxide waste significantly and resulted in an over 80% reduction in nitrous oxide carbon emissions. 

We have maintained a 50% reduction in business travel as compared to our 2019 baseline.

We continue to advocate, speaking to congressional organizations in Washington, D.C. We’ve also provided feedback to states creating carbon change legislation. For example, we contributed to refinements in the Washington Clean Buildings Act, and the City of Seattle’s Building Emissions Performance Standard.

“I consider this a watershed year for us,” Schenk says. “We were able to deliver on several key goals.”

Work toward carbon negative by 2030

This year, we have made impressive progress toward reducing carbon emissions through several key projects, based on careful planning and resourcing.

For example, this year’s LED lighting retrofit is already reducing significant carbon emissions thanks to an initial three-year investment in data collection, planning, contracting and coordination. This is very complex across seven states with different regulatory requirements and costs. Careful planning made this successful.

Our nitrous oxide deactivation work required a small financial investment but widespread logistical support.

“It’s a facilities issue, it’s a clinical issue, it’s a leadership issue, it’s a regulatory issue,” Schenk says. “So, it’s complex, but we demonstrated that multiple sites were able to complete this work in a short time period.”

Work toward carbon negative can’t be siloed, Schenk says. Providence’s strategy is based on evidence and data. A change management plan supported by top leadership was also critical, and it was communicated well and supported on the ground by those doing the work.

“It’s complicated in a big health system, but without those things, you can’t get it done,” she says. “We’re very pleased to have the pieces in place to deliver on our goals.”

Collaborating for a better world

We have made consistent and effective progress thanks to collaborative efforts. For example, the environmental stewardship team gathered evidence that the way in which our hospitals were delivering nitrous oxide, a climate-damaging anesthetic agent, was extremely wasteful. Once the evidence was presented to decision makers across Providence, support was garnered to switch from the inefficient and problematic central supply delivery through piped infrastructure to the more efficient e-cylinder delivery method. 

And then, caregivers across Providence got to work.

“Our nitrous oxide disconnection project was complex, but it went quite smoothly.” Schenk says. “I think that speaks to strong leadership, great staff who really took this on and were able to do it, and helpful resources from our team to say here’s why, here’s how, here’s who you need to talk to, here are some things to consider. Caregivers were proud of it. The leadership was pleased. The operating room and facility staff were quite satisfied. They’re saving money. And they’ve seen their carbon emissions drop. We need, for the health of ourselves and the health of our planet, to move forward on that kind of broad-scale mitigation.” 

We have also witnessed the effectiveness of working closely with the community. This year, Providence partnered with and co-sponsored the Bloomberg Green Festival, which hosted experts from around the world to collaborate on climate-change solutions. 

“I was proud to be part of a health system that wanted to share our story,” Schenk says. “This is part of our commitment to help further the health of communities.”

This year, many of us have witnessed or experienced the effects of climate change on our communities. These events, at times devastating, underline the importance of being good stewards of our common home. Providence is ready for the work ahead.

“Climate scientists around the world have said we still have a chance to avoid the worst, but we have to halve our emissions by 2030 compared to about 2016,” Schenk says. “Next year is 2025. Time is ticking along. At Providence, we are on track. We’re making progress toward all of our goals. This work gets harder as you go along, but it’s been a great year. It’s been an amazing year, honestly.”

Contributing caregiver

Beth Schenk, PhD, RN, FAAN, is the Chief Environmental Stewardship Officer for Providence.

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Related resources

Caring for our common home: Environmental stewardship at Providence

Decarbonization in action: Shifting to renewable electricity for heating hospital buildings

How we’re improving our chemical and anesthetic use

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