June 2024
ROYAL NORTH SHORE HOSPITAL
W
elcome to our second edition of Royal North Shore Hospital GREEN MATTERS, where we further our journey towards a greener and healthier future for our patients, staff and carers. As we take strides to prioritise sustainability, we are delighted to share our progress on the most significant initiatives and milestones with you. As part of our ongoing efforts to minimising our environmental footprint, we have made remarkable headway in reducing our landfill. This month’s edition will primarily focus on the progress we have made in dealing with our waste at Royal North Shore, not just at our kitchens but in our clinical spaces too. We are excited to share some fantastic achievements as well. Our Sustainability Committee members were recognised for their contributions at the ‘Exceptional People Awards - 2023’ We express our gratitude to all our dedicated staff, sustainable groups, partners and Sustainable Committee members for their continued commitment in helping to embrace sustainable living within our healthcare centre and beyond. Together, we can positively influence not just our patients’ lives but also the wider community and the environment we all cherish.
INSIDE
THIS ISSUE
2.
Heather Gough, Chair – RNSH Sustainability Committee
CELEBRATING OUR SUSTAINABLE COMMITTEE MEMBERS The Committee was awarded for their efforts in spearheading numerous initiatives including phasing out use of patient socks, replacing plastic cutlery in wards with reusable silver and disposable wooden cutlery, installing e-Water in the kitchen to reduce the use of harmful chemicals. Click here to hear from them. Erin Foulsham, a Clinical Nurse Educator for Anaesthetics at RNSH was applauded for her exceptional dedication in minimising the use and environmental mark of single-use plastics in RNS operating theatres.
(Left to Right) Heather Gough, Erin Foulsham, Susan Day, Natasha Hendy, Rachel Mckinnon
2 SUSTAINABILITY THROUGH OUR VALUED PARTNERS
A new waste initiative of segregating organic waste was launched in January 2024 at RNSH in collaboration with our valued partners - HealthShare and Zouki. Our kitchen waste would have normally been placed into landfill.
Veolia, our waste partner now transports our kitchen waste offsite to SoilCo where it is transformed into premium compost and mulch products. By doing so, RNSH has effectively redirected a greater volume of waste from landfills.
In alignment with National Waste Policy Action Plan, we aim to achieve targets of 80% resource recovery rate from all waste streams to landfill by 2030. We have increased our waste diversion from 14% in December 2023 to 19% in April 2024. Our partners are continuously refining their internal processes to capture maximum organic waste. It is a long path to our targets, but we are steadily making strides forward.
P22 – A SMART WAY OF PHARMA DISPOSAL Did you know that pharmaceutical waste contaminates soil and waterways if dumped into
OXYGEN CYLINDER TRIM REDUCES CARBON Royal North Shore has reduced its carbon footprint by rationalising its portable oxygen cylinder holdings to lower oxygen demand. At the beginning of 2023, our oxygen cylinder holdings stood at 939.
general waste?
Our Net Zero Leads, Debbie Barry and
Sally Nicolson have designed a process to ensure pharmawaste generated at Royal North Shore does not end up in landfill by introducing Pharmasmart P22. Pharmasmart P22 are bins implemented in our clinical areas. They are located within the treatment rooms across our wards. All pharmawaste including ampoules, vials, tubing, drawing up needles, expired tablets and capsules are discarded into them. The contents then undergo high temperature incineration. Thereafter, the Pharmasmart P22 bins are cleaned and reused. Thanks to our Net Zero Leads, we now have a secure way to discard medications and pharma waste at Royal North Shore.
A PAR level was introduced to each location across the campus, thereby reducing our holdings to 527 at the beginning of May 2024. This a 56% reduction across the site.
Our Emergency Department implemented a trial project called ROCkED to manage their cylinder holdings. They have removed the need for cylinders underneath all beds, reducing their demand footprint and reducing work, health and safety issues with lifting the cylinders on an off the beds. These efforts have led to reduced resource demand, lower carbon emissions from production and transport and decreased use of operational materials.
HAVE YOUR SAY If you have a sustainability story or idea to share, feel free to scan the QR code to send in your idea.
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Today, we meet Lisa Zhao, who shares her sustainable goals and vision as a Sustainability Committee member.
Lisa is acting Executive Assistant to the Operations Manager for Division of Medicine at Royal North Shore Hospital. She is passionate about recycling waste, both at work and at home. She actively participates in community freecycling efforts, dedicated to minimising waste and promoting reuse whenever possible.
Her vision for RNSH is to implement better recycling programs, especially on the wards, where patients, HealthShare staff and RNSH staff are all actively involved to ensure it is sustainable.
During her free time, she enjoys travelling with her family and finds yoga to be a good source of relaxation.
GARDENS CONTRIBUTE TO OUR SUSTAINABILITY GOALS Our gardening staff work tirelessly on site to maintain the lush green exterior space at RNSH . To aid in our diversion from general waste landfills, a new Green Organic waste bin has been provided to our staff to manage the green waste. Bob Frizelle, our dedicated gardener, is elated to join in and support our sustainability objectives, emphasising the importance of using this bin exclusively for green waste. Our garden waste is now collected and recycled offsite along with our organic food waste, keeping it out of landfill.
RECYCLE YOUR BATTERIES FOR A BETTER TOMORROW
Did you know that we have a process for battery disposal? All you need to do is:
1. Collect and store them in a suitable container. 2. Log a call with our Helpdesk team, HSNSW-RNSH-Heldpdesk@health.nsw.gov.au 3. Our waste team will be on their way to help you discard them.
HAVE YOUR SAY If you have a sustainability story or idea to share, feel free to scan the QR code to send in your idea.
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✓ Blister and IMED recycling program.
✓ LED replacements lead to a greener RNS
✓
Trees for Newborns
GOT AN IDEA, JOIN THE
SUSTAINABLE
CONVERSATION BY
SHARING IT. ALL YOU
HAVE TO DO IS TO
SCAN THE QR CODE
HAVE YOUR SAY If you have a sustainability story or idea to share, feel free to scan the QR code to send in your idea.
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