INTERVIEW: UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA MEDICAL CENTER
A HEALTHY
FUTURE FOR ALL Sustainable Business Magazine speaks to Melanie Stewart, sustainability manager at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and Nebraska Medicine, about net zero goals, new technologies, and the intersection of sustainability and healthcare. UNMC is Nebraska’s only public academic health sciences center. Part of the overall University of Nebraska system, UNMC’s main campus is based in midtown Omaha, and with their clinical partner Nebraska Medicine have a mission statement of: ‘To lead the world in transforming lives to create a healthy future for all individuals and communities through premier educational programs, innovative research, and extraordinary patient care.’ “For us, being sustainable is part of healthcare,” says Melanie Stewart, Sustainability Manager for UNMC/Nebraska Medicine. “It is preventive care. For example, if we pollute less, air and water quality can improve, which means there will be more clean air and water available to breathe and drink. We have been working on recycling and some other projects since the mid80s, but we really ramped up sustainability in a formal setting in 2010.” Healthcare facilities are some of the most energy-intensive buildings in the United States. “It was difficult to know where 6 | SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS MAGAZINE
to start at first,” says Ms. Stewart. “Do you start with lighting? Do you start with your chiller? Do you work on recycling bins? That’s when we began working with Verdis Group on a sustainability master plan that not only helped outline those goals, but also the different strategies needed to reach those goals. And in doing so we created our triple bottom line: All of our strategies have to be positive for people, the planet, and be economically sound as well.” AMBITIOUS GOALS That initial Sustainability Master Plan set ambitious targets, including carbon neutrality across UNMC and Nebraska Medicine by 2050. “But with recent scientific findings, we decided these goals weren’t enough,” says Ms. Stewart. “In 2017 we revamped our Sustainability Master Plan to have even more ambitious goals. In the new plan, there are six core goals, and everything is factored into them. We have pledged to be net zero building emissions