Eyeworld

a company-wide ethos of resource conservation," he said, noting that the Escambia County Health Depart- ment, Pensacola, Florida, studied its energy use before and after enacting energy efficiency measures and saw an average energy reduction of 5.2% per day, equating to $14,000 in annu- al savings. My Green Doctor provides work- books on energy efficiency, renew- able energy, water efficiency, solid waste and recycling, drug disposal and chemicals, transportation and commuting, and healthy foods for the doctor's office. These resources can help a practice focus on its specif- ic environmental goals. The resource also provides a quick start guide to those just getting started, suggesting a luncheon for staff where two to three action items are chosen and where a team member is selected to take the lead on each of those items, reporting back on progress at the next "action step" meeting. Dr. Sack said many of the workbooks start with easy items that a practice could implement before diving deeper into the process. A few of these include: • Turn off machines and lights when not in use. • Switch to compact fluorescent bulbs. • Institute a thermostat policy: 74 degrees F in the summer and 68 degrees F in the winter. • Provide recycle bins around the office and in the waiting room. • Turn off the hot water heater if it's not needed. • Eliminate Styrofoam products in favor of reusable dishware. • Use more environmentally friend- ly chemicals and cleaners, when possible. • Avoid using paper when use of an electronic medical record is possi- ble instead. More intensive action items include getting a comprehensive energy assessment and water audit, purchasing renewable energy, and changing out plumbing fixtures with water-efficient options. There are also measures specif- ic to medicine that could improve environmental sustainability as well. Dr. Thiel and her team demonstrat- ed this with a paper published in the Journal of Cataract & Refractive Surgery. 2 Dr. Thiel said not much is known, overall, about the envi- ronmental footprint of medicine, but there have been a few studies examining surgeries that found single-use, disposable supplies are the largest contributor of environ- mental emissions for single surgeries. Most of these studies, however, were conducted in the U.S. and Europe where almost all surgical supplies are single-use; Dr. Thiel and her team wanted to research the impact of reusable surgical supplies on environ- mental sustainability. Over a 4-month period, re- searchers conducted waste audits and interviews and looked at purchasing data as it pertained to one surgical procedure (phacoemulsification cata- ract surgery) at two tertiary care cen- ters of the Aravind Eye Care System in southern India where most of the surgical supplies are reusable. Based on analysis of the data collected, cataract surgery within this health continued on page 22 March 2018 • Ophthalmology Business 21

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