Each year, the U.S. health sector pumps out nearly 10% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. Hospitals, open 24/7, are among the biggest culprits, with nonstop lighting, heating, cooling and energy-hungry machines like MRIs and CT scanners. Operating rooms are especially wasteful, relying heavily on single-use supplies that end up in landfills.
It’s a record that inspired the Medical College of Wisconsin to create its Center for Sustainability, Health and the Environment in 2023 to try to prevent unnecessary waste and drive what it calls climate-conscious health care. “Energy use and materials are necessary for providing high-quality care, but we also need to look for opportunities to mitigate those so we can be good stewards of our environment,” says Christa Wagner, the center’s director.
It’s time to pick your Milwaukee favorites for the year!
Environmentally conscious health care can cut costs at hospitals, too (and potentially save patients money). Forming new initiatives can be expensive, but experts liken it to installing solar panels on your roof – on a far larger scale. “Whatever we do to conserve energy has an enormous impact, cost-wise and emissions-wise,” says Dr. Karin Zuegge, who leads similar efforts in Madison as medical director of sustainability at UW Health.
Practice Greenhealth, which helps health care organizations implement sustainable operations, found hospitals’ investments in energy efficiency saved over $203 million in 2024.
Wagner’s role involves collaborating with departments across MCW, Froedtert and Children’s Wisconsin to create and implement sustainability practices. Preventing waste is a major goal – in the U.S., landfills make about 120 million tons of greenhouse gases every year. One of the Center’s first initiatives was creating an operating room checklist to help medical providers practice mindful energy consumption and identify necessities to reduce unnecessary waste.
“When something’s brought into the operating room, it gets thrown away, even if unused,” says Wagner. “We want to educate our providers to be more thoughtful about supplies they need immediately versus things they can wait 30 seconds for.”
Outside the OR, small process changes can have big environmental payoffs. For example, when MCW revised diagnostic protocols for diarrhea to remove a lab test that produced hazardous chemical waste, Wagner steered the decision toward improving environmental impact.
“We often have no idea what happens downstream as doctors, and the [center] has been so essential in helping us make changes toward sustainability,” says Dr. Julie Kolinski, Froedtert’s associate chief quality and patient safety officer.
Wagner also launched MCW’s first campus composting program to convert cafeteria food scraps into a resource, rather than waste. To date, the effort has diverted more than 8,000 pounds from landfills. The Center furthers sustainable practices throughout the hospital by educating the providers whose practices naturally generate waste.
Wagner helped to develop a curriculum for MCW medical students and physicians, highlighting both the environmental cost of health care waste and the broader effects of climate change on public health. “These are the people in the thick of hospital work every day,” says Wagner. “My role is to be a cheerleader and educate them.”
