Green ICU Audit

Sustainable Solutions for Critical Care

The Green ICU Audit and Plan by SION60 is a low-cost, comprehensive sustainability assessment, specifically focused on the ICU. This 10-page plan delivers ROI cost savings, metrics, critical success factors and quick wins to build a Green ICU. SION60 uses a methodology outlined by the Society of Critical Care Medicine’s Sustainability Taskforce journal article: Environmental Sustainability in ICUs: A Report From the Society of Critical Care Medicine Sustainability Task Force in Critical Care Medicine, March 2025. Disclosure: SION60’s CEO was a co-author on the report.

Other good Green ICU resources include: European Society of Critical Care Medicine Green ICU paper, an ICU toolkit from Australia and a poster from Houston Methodist. The timeless adage of “reduce, reuse, recycle” when combined with “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” is a simple, powerful framework.

Why It Matters
ICUs are resource-intensive, and even small steps to reduce carbon emissions and waste can make a meaningful difference in lowering healthcare’s environmental impact. Within healthcare, ICUs can play a leading role in shaping sustainable practices and policies. Critical care teams by definition are multi-disciplinary and can move fast with education, data and progress reports.

The Green ICU Audit Report

The Green ICU Report is a detailed 10-page document outlining a pathway to sustainability success in the ICU. It includes:

  • Financial Impact Analysis:
    1. ROI potential
    2. Energy savings modeled for your facilities
    3. Framework to create a self-sustaining sustainability budget
  • Quick Win Project List:
    A curated set of 10–20 actionable projects to get started immediately
  • Strategic Insights:
    A high-level overview of ICU readiness and opportunities to build a low-cost, high-ROI sustainability strategy
  • Investment Metrics:
    Data-driven metrics to inform labor and capital allocation decisions

Pricing

$5,000 – including travel expenses

The Audit Includes:

Stakeholder Meetings to Get Buy-in

  • Medical Staff: Education for Physicians, Nurses, Techs
  • Operations: Engage management, Operations, HR, Nursing, Supply Chain, Pharmacy, Finance
  • Facilities: Plant Operations, EVS, Construction

Review of Green ICU Data

  • Scope 1 Gases: anesthesia gases, natural gas, nitrous oxide
  • Scope 2 Electricity: review usage by submeter, estimate by per square foot, or energy use index adjusted for ICU utilization; survey unit equipment usage, air handling/HVAC assessment, temperature reduction for rooms not in use, lighting sensors, building envelope assessment
  • Scope 3 Assessments: supplier, product, equipment reuse, ICU patient kit, pharmacy, single use disposables, plastic, IV use, paper printing, waste audit, options for reusable blood pressure cuffs and finally PPE- especially gloves, visitor gowns, disposable gowns
  • Other Data Sources: EMR order sets, DRG utilization & length-of stay reports, MRSA occurrence and management, rapid response team protocols to decrease ICU admits, discharge planning, trash/recycling audit, plastics audit and interviews with clinicians

Opportunity Identification

  • Joint Commission Sustainability Certification readiness
  • Education for clinical and management staff
  • Starting Green ICU teams
  • Review of applicable local/state environmental mandates
  • We will help you project manage and measure as much as possible to track progress