SEATTLE – (Feb. 10, 2017) — Virginia Mason has been named a recipient of the 2020 Challenge Climate Champion Award by Global Green and Healthy Hospitals for its work leading efforts to respond to climate change.

“Climate change is one of the greatest human health threats of our time,” said Brenna Davis, director, Sustainability, Virginia Mason. “We are working with our international colleagues to reduce the global environmental impact of the health care industry.”

Virginia Mason, which has pledged to reduce its own greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by the year 2020, is one of several organizations to receive a gold medal in the Climate Leadership and Climate Resiliency categories.

In 2015, Virginia Mason joined nine other health care institutions in launching the 2020 Health Care Climate Challenge, a campaign aimed at reducing the carbon footprint of the health care industry around the world. It also led the creation of the Washington Climate Declaration, signed by more than 250 businesses.

Virginia Mason has received numerous accolades for its environmental stewardship, including being named one of the 25 most sustainable hospitals in America by Practice Green Health. Virginia Mason was also recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review as one of the 50 Greenest Hospitals in 2013 and 2015. Additionally in 2015, the medical center was awarded Practice Green Health’s Top 25 Environmental Excellence Award.

In the 1990s, Virginia Mason’s sustainability program focused on recycling and energy efficiency. In 2007, Virginia Mason became the first hospital in the Pacific Northwest to compost food waste from the cafeteria and patients’ rooms. Shortly after, Virginia Mason became the first hospital in the Pacific Northwest to begin a recycling program in its operating rooms. Sustainability projects are implemented using the Virginia Mason Production System, an innovative management methodology inspired by the Toyota Production System.

Learn more about Virginia Mason’s commitment to sustainability.

About Virginia Mason Health System
Virginia Mason, founded in 1920, is a nonprofit regional health care system based in Seattle that serves the Pacific Northwest. In the Puget Sound region, the system includes 336-bed Virginia Mason Hospital; a primary and specialty care group practice of more than 470 physicians; regional medical centers in Seattle, Bainbridge Island, Bellevue, Federal Way, Kirkland, Issaquah and Lynnwood; Bailey-Boushay House, the first skilled-nursing and outpatient chronic care management program in the United States designed and built specifically to meet the needs of people with HIV/AIDS; Benaroya Research Institute, which is internationally recognized for autoimmune disease research; and Virginia Mason Institute, which trains health care professionals and others from around the world in the Virginia Mason Production System, an innovative management methodology for continually improving quality, safety and efficiency. Virginia Mason online: VirginiaMason.org

Virginia Mason Health System also includes Virginia Mason Memorial, a 226-bed hospital serving the Yakima Valley in central Washington since 1950. Memorial online: YakimaMemorial.org

Media Contact: 
Gale Robinette
Media Relations Manager
Virginia Mason Health System
(206) 341-1509
gale.robinette@VirginiaMason.org