stjoseph.html

St. Joseph Mercy Hospital

PO Box 995
5301 East Huron River Drive
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
(734) 712-3315
http://www.sjmh.com

Business Overview

Coming soon!

Sustainable Business Practices

With a large employee population of 6,500 employees at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, recycling and waste reduction efforts prove to be key in minimizing costs. The construction of the waste management area focused on material recovery cost around 10% what a replacement incinerator would have cost. The waste management facility recycles over 540 tons a year, which represents 32% of the total waste. 40 tons of paper is recycled annually. The hospital has a comprehensive recycling and reuse program where packing materials and pallets are reused, landscaping waste is chipped for reuse or returned to the soil, and grass clippings are left on the lawn as fertilizer. All construction wastes and old furniture and equipment are sorted for recoverable materials. Items such as light tubes, light ballasts, batteries, waste oil, mercury debris, and other universal or hazardous wastes are managed for recovery. The hospital purchases recycled content items such as paper, paper towels, toilet tissue, and has a policy to further emphasize the purchase of recycled content products. In order to keep employees energized about their waste management program, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital holds an annual, mandatory education program for employees to be informed of and updated on the hospitals preferred waste reduction and recycling policies. St. Joseph has also taken mercury elimination initiatives since 1996. Through 2003, the hospital helped organize and co-host a community mercury thermometer exchange program: over 1,550 digital thermometers were distributed and over 2000 mercury thermometers were collected. In 2006, the hospital finished construction on a materials recovery facility that greatly increases their ability to recover material waste of all kinds. The materials are transported within the facility by robotic cars to decrease the incidence of injury to workers.