April 22, 2024

For Earth Day inspiration, look no further than Texas Children’s brand-new hospital in North Austin. With interior design inspired by Central Texas landscapes and ecology, vibrant outdoor spaces, floor-to-ceiling windows for natural light and so much more beneath the surface, North Austin Campus is a beacon of healthy and sustainable design.

Traditionally, hospital design has been focused on efficiency and safety – but with a growing emphasis on healthy spaces and sustainable materials, health care facilities are evolving from the inside out by creating unique and healing experiences that go far beyond the physical.

“The material industry has partly caused that shift,” said Senior Vice President of Facilities Planning & Development Jill Pearsall, who also had a hand in designing and building both West Campus and The Woodlands hospitals. “Manufacturers have either been forced to change what they put in their materials or have chosen to be more sustainable…and I think that’s a good thing.”

These trends have pushed Texas Children’s to adopt new products and methods that are better for the environment. “The paint, carpet, flooring manufacturers…they’ve changed their ways, and we’ve adapted too because it’s what’s available, and because it’s also the right thing to do,” added Pearsall.

North Austin Campus was required to get a two-star rating from the foundational Austin Energy Green Building (AEGB) program, and ended up with a three-star rating. “We not only designed this facility to meet city requirements, but we also layered in an educational program designed to teach others what we’ve done to be sustainable and respectful of the environment, and hopefully teach kids that those things are possible.”

Other earth-friendly features of the hospital include:

  • Preservation of natural wetlands on the 24-acre site
  • Significant tree preservation, regional native and adaptive plants, a variety of shade and ornamental trees, including a 10” specimen Shumard Oak adjacent to main entrance
  • Outdoor paseo with a “peekaboo” garden wall for respite space and physical/sports therapy
  • Bike racks at building entrances and electric vehicle charging throughout garage
  • Pond used for site irrigation, replenished by condensate from cooling towers in central plant
  • Sustainably and locally sourced materials

Bringing North Austin to fruition wouldn’t have been possible without the tireless work and collaboration of our One Amazing Team across Austin and Houston, and our dedicated partners at Page and McCarthy. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit in the early stages of planning, virtual meetings only brought these teams closer together and more aligned to a core mission, according to Pearsall.

Click here to watch a special video from our design partner, Page, and view the gallery below to see photos of North Austin Campus.

It’s not a day – it’s a movement! Click here for Earth Day resources and activities, and click here to learn more about Texas Children’s commitment to reduce organizational emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050.

Today is Earth Day and to celebrate, the Green Team announces Texas Children’s commitment to reduce organizational emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieve net-zero by 2050.

“This is a bold commitment Texas Children’s is making to our patients, team members and community,” said Dr. Daniel Mahoney, Green Team co-chair. “This is the right thing to do and aligns with our mission. We’re not only creating a healthier future for children and women, but a healthier planet too.”

Climate change is the biggest threat to public health in the 21st century. It is bringing more deadly extreme weather events, increasing non-communicable diseases, and is facilitating the emergence and spread of infectious diseases. Twenty-eight percent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the United States with the health care sector contributing 8.5% of the total.

The White House with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched the Health Sector Climate Pledge last year inviting organizations to lower greenhouse gas emissions and build a more climate resilient infrastructure.

Texas Children’s initial focus areas to achieve net zero include:

  1. Direct Emissions
  2. Indirect Electricity Emissions
  3. Value Chain Emissions
  4. EV charging stations
  5. Renewable energy
  6. Anesthesia gases
  7. Shuttle conversion to electric
  8. Food waste composting
  9. Recycling

Our goal is to reach these landmarks with our sustainability efforts:

  • 196,020 tons of waste recycled instead of landfilled
  • 28,089 garbage trucks of waste recycled instead of landfilled
  • 158 wind turbines running for a year
  • 21,536,530 incandescent lamps switch to LEDs
  • 24,596,241 trash bags of waste recycled instead of landfilled

These efforts will result in the following:

  • 9,395,748 tree seedlings grown for 10 years
  • 3,768 acres of U.S. forests preserved in one year
  • 677,626 acres of U.S. forests in one year
Earth Day event

To learn more, please join the Green Team on Monday, April 22 on The Auxiliary Bridge in the Medical Center from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to hear from our internal partners and vendors. You also can learn how to reduce your own carbon footprint at work and at home.

If you’re unable to attend, please visit the new Sustainability SharePoint site to learn more.

For more information on the Green Team or how to get involved, please contact committee co-chairs Dr. Daniel Mahoney or Gary Brown.

April 18, 2023

Since Texas Children’s Green Team partnered with Practice Greenhealth a little over a year ago, several initiatives have launched, completed and are in progress as we work toward our sustainability goals. As we celebrate Earth Day this April 22, we take a moment to see how far we’ve come and what’s on the horizon.

“The improvements we want to make for Texas Children’s will certainly take time, but it’s time well spent. We’re anxious to move forward, but being thoughtful in our approach to ensure it’s done right,” said Dr. Maren Fuller, co-chair of the Texas Children’s Green Team. “Thank you to everyone involved as we continue on this journey together to make a lasting impact on the environment.”

Milestones
  • LED West Campus. West Campus completed a multi-year project to retrofit all lighting to LED.
  • LED general. LED lighting now used in new construction and completed 60% LED retrofit in the Medical Center.
  • Electric vehicles. Three electric passenger vans as circulators continue to run in the Medical Center from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. daily.
  • Propane shuttles. Of the 15 shuttles in the Medical Center, 13 are propane, which are friendlier to the environment, more cost efficient and quieter. The last two diesel shuttles are scheduled to be upgraded next year.
  • Staffing. Hired a Certified Energy Manager for the organization.
  • Waste. Partnering with Stericycle on a recycling and waste reduction program.
  • Food composting. Researching and identifying vendor for composting.
  • Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence Awards. Completed awards applications to assess progress and measure our sustainability performance (Medical Center completed their second, West and Woodlands Campuses completed their first).

In addition to these milestones, the anesthesiology department has made incredible strides thanks to the efforts of Dr. Shazia Mohammad, Dr. Ammar Yamani and Tamra Kelly, CRNA from the Sustainability in the Perioperative Area (SUPER) Committee.

Desflurane Removal

Out of all the anesthetic volatile gases we use, desflurane is the most harmful with a global warming potential of 4000 times that of carbon dioxide. The carbon footprint of desflurane is a whole magnitude worse than other volatile anesthetics. Led by Dr. Mohammad, we have officially removed desflurane from all Texas Children’s campuses/locations as of February 2023. It is no longer on the pharmacy formulary. By removing all 99 desflurane vaporizers and chemicals, Texas Children’s Hospital will reduce our carbon footprint by nearly 900,000 kg CO2 equivalent and save over $80,000 a year.

Suction Canister Reduction

At The Woodlands Campus, Dr. Yamani worked with the perioperative team to encourage anesthesiologists and ENT surgeons or dentists to reduce plastic waste. Normally, the anesthesiologist and the ENT surgeon or dentist both have a dedicated suction canister and tubing for a single patient. With minimal changes to standard practices, these practitioners can share a suction canister and tubing to dramatically reduce waste and material cost. When presented to the peri-operative team, immediate buy-in was obtained by the entire perioperative team. This low lift “Save the Suction” initiative addressed business and sustainability imperatives while maintaining superior patient safety; this was manifested in a reduction in overall suction canister waste and cost despite the addition of two new operating rooms over the last two years. Dr. Yamani’s efforts hope to serve as a prime example of how small changes can have a significant impact.

Biohazard Waste Reduction

In the cardiovascular operating rooms (CV OR) and catheterization lab, Tamra Kelly (CRNA) helped reduce unnecessary waste from going into the biohazard bins. Biohazard waste is 7 to 11 times more expensive to dispose compared to general waste. It has a much larger carbon footprint as well as higher energy and water use since it is treated by autoclaving or incineration. By communicating and working with the perioperative staff and administration, Tamra helped coordinate adding general waste containers instead of only biohazard containers in the CV OR and cath lab. She also educated the department on what is considered general waste and what is biohazardous waste. She has effectively reduced Texas Children’s carbon footprint from the CV perioperative area.

For more information on the Green Team or how to get involved, please contact committee co-chairs Dr. Maren Fuller or Gary Brown.

April 22, 2022

Building a brighter Tomorrow, Together at Texas Children’s includes creating and maintaining a healthy environment to live, work and receive care – not only for our patients and our people, but for our planet.

As Earth Day approaches and our journey into the future continues, Texas Children’s has re-established the Green Team: a cross-functional group of team members from across the system with a focus on sustainability, education and the coordination of environmental best practices.

The Green Team is supported by our executive leadership and committed to making Texas Children’s a leader in sustainability and environmentally efficient operations. They’re working to support healthier children, women and communities, and developing new strategies to implement system-wide.

They have partnered with Practice Greenhealth, a health care membership organization that provides a range of sustainability solutions. Within the Practice Greenhealth platform are 12 areas of focus around which the Green Team will create programs and initiatives.

Let’s celebrate Earth Day!

Please join the Green Team for a fun and informative Earth Day celebration.

Texas Children’s Celebrates Earth Day
11 a.m. – 1 p.m., Friday, April 22
The Auxiliary Bridge, Medical Center campus

Learn more about our sustainability goals, get tips for maintaining sustainable practices at work and home and make a personal sustainability pledge. You can also meet our vendor partners and enter a drawing for a chance to win a special Earth Day Giveaway!

Our commitment in action

Over the years, Texas Children’s has taken several steps to support sustainability and impact real change and benefits in our facilities. The measures include the following action and are just the beginning:

  • Installing low-flow toilets and faucets
  • Utilizing reusable sharps containers
  • Energy-saving improvements in NRI building with savings of nearly $350,000
  • Energy-saving assessment in Mark A. Wallace Tower with potential savings of nearly $350,000
  • LED lighting upgrade on main campus to improve lighting, save energy and reduce maintenance costs
  • Implementing dozens of energy-saving initiatives, including renewable energy projects, energy rebates and credits, and system upgrades, such as installing temperature range control in non-patient care areas

Texas Children’s Green Team is currently applying for the Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence Awards program across all areas of focus. Navigating this process will help determine sustainability analytics to better understand the cost, impact and performance of past and present sustainability initiatives. It will also allow provide insight to better anticipate future conditions and requirements as the team builds a multi-faceted program.

May 18, 2021

Texas Children’s Global Health partners at the Area 25 Health Centre in Malawi planted giant bamboo seedlings in its permaculture garden to recognize Earth Day, and to celebrate the lasting connections between human and environmental health.

An average of 20 babies are delivered each day at the health centre in the Malawian capital city of Lilongwe, where Texas Children’s and Baylor College of Medicine launched a Global Women’s Health program in 2012 in partnership with the Ministry of Health of Malawi and Baylor Foundation Malawi.

With a lack of access to health care services and limited resources in many settings, Malawian women experience 675 deaths per 100,000 live births; in the United States, the ratio is 14 deaths per 100,000 births. Texas Children’s Global Health is working to improve the odds for Malawian moms through transformative programs that benefit thousands of women and babies.

One such effort is the Permaculture Program at Area 25, which focuses on establishing a safe, nurturing environment for all patients receiving care at the facility – particularly pregnant women staying at the maternity waiting home. The vibrant permaculture garden is designed as a human-centered landscape, and based on a system of sustainable agriculture that promotes harmony with the local environment and natural ecosystems.

For Earth Day, Malawi Minister of Forestry and Natural Resources Nancy Tembo and U.S. Ambassador to Malawi Robert Scott joined health centre officials in the permaculture garden for a symbolic planting of giant bamboo. They also distributed seedlings to patients, which they’ve done for more than 3 years.

The distribution supports environmental stewardship by creating a relationship between the mother, her child and the seedlings she takes home. As the child grows, so do the plants, providing the family with new sources of food and firewood.

“The symbolic planting of the bamboos is a manifestation of the ministry’s commitment to healing the earth, using bamboo as a candidate species for landscape restoration and improved livelihoods,” Tembo said after the event.

Through the USAID Agricultural Diversification Project, the permaculture garden at Area 25 also supports nutrition and productivity. The space is a demonstration site for soya milk and mini drip kits, as well as drip irrigation and distribution of PICS bags to patients that allow for storage of grains without the use of insecticide.

Texas Children’s Global Health Network is the largest provider of pediatric HIV care in the world, with an expanded scope that also includes tuberculosis, malnutrition, Sickle Cell Disease, oncology, cardiology, emergency medicine, surgery, anesthesiology and maternal health.

April 22, 2021

This week on Mark Wallace’s blog, he shares what Texas Children’s is doing to honor Earth Day and how, by working together, we can certainly achieve sustainability. Read more

April 26, 2017

On April 19, Texas Children’s Green Team hosted the hospital’s annual Earth Day celebration which expanded to three locations this year for employees and staff to join in on the fun.

Besides The Auxiliary Bridge event at Texas Children’s Medical Center Campus, Texas Children’s Hospital West Campus and Texas Children’s Health Plan hosted exciting Earth Day events.

Vendors provided eco-friendly, cost-saving tips including how to become more energy efficient, tips on eating green, and ways to reduce waste and recycle more to promote a cleaner, healthier planet. Earl the Bear greeted guests at West Campus and Captain Clean Up entertained the crowd at Main Campus.

Informative handouts and goodies were distributed to attendees including Earth Day stickers, seeded confetti packets and customized Green Team water bottles made of 100 percent recyclable materials. At Main and West campuses, employees safely disposed of their expired and unused medications as part of Pharmacy’s Medication Disposal and Medication Take Back Program.

The Earth Day celebration also included two tree plantings at West Campus and Texas Children’s The Woodlands Hospital thanks to the generous donations from Trees for Houston.

As the Green Team prepares for next year’s Earth Day celebrations, feel free to drop them a line. If you have any green ideas, suggestions for next year or want to join the team, email teamgreen@texaschildrens.org.