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20 Ophthalmology Business • March 2018 by Liz Hillman, Ophthalmology Business Staff Writer Going green in medicine in the patient waiting room and the staff lunchroom." Though Dr. Sack said his office hasn't tracked its financial savings after going green, he noted one prac- tice that saved more than $2,000 per doctor per year for enacting sustain- ability measures. "I think this is just the tip of the iceberg for what can be saved in water, energy, and by adopting office environment and saving mon- ey in the process. "People are truly proud to work in a business that cares about the environment," Dr. Sack said. "In our office, we recycle, reuse paper, turn off devices, use the electronic record exclusively instead of paper, have en- vironmental health brochures in the waiting room, and proudly display our Green Doctor Office certificate Incorporating practices that are environmentally sustainable into a medical practice I n the U.S., the healthcare sector accounts for 10% of the country's total greenhouse gas emissions and 9% of its criteria air pollutants. 1 This, Cassandra Thiel, PhD, assistant professor, Department of Population Health, New York University School of Medicine, New York, said, means that the healthcare system is "harm- ing the public's health through its emissions—even if we are helping it in other ways." Some strides have been made in this sector on the environmental front. Todd Sack, MD, currently a volunteer physician after nearly 3 de- cades in private practice, specialized in gastroenterology and hepatology, said that large hospitals in the U.S. are about a decade ahead of medical offices in taking some action for the environment, but, he pointed out, "far more care is given and far more resources are used in the outpatient setting." After serving on committees of medical societies and government commissions for decades where he helped create policy statements about environmental issues and climate change, Dr. Sack found despite that, "we were doing almost nothing to help health professionals do any- thing about these problems." So, in 2013, he decided to go green and is now the editor of My Green Doctor, a nonprofit owned by the Florida Medical Association that acts as a free online resource to help medical offic- es bring environmental sustainability to their practice, creating a healthier My Green Doctor is accessible at www.mygreendoctor.org.