Green ICU Assessment
Green ICU Assessment
Green ICU Sustainability Pilot
Adult ICUs carry a carbon footprint roughly three times that of standard acute-care beds, making them a high-priority sustainability target. This assessment, the first of its kind for a US ICU, identified several priority areas:
Waste & Consumables
- Admission nursing kits generate significant unnecessary waste
- Switching to reusable blood pressure cuffs is the highest-ROI quick win
Energy
- On-site natural gas cogeneration will be benchmarked against grid and clean-energy alternatives to identify the most cost-effective long-term strategy.
Procurement
- Embedding sustainability criteria into the existing GPO contracting structure could drive environmental improvements across all member hospitals.
Governance
- There is no ICU Green Team, which is documented as the most impactful grassroots sustainability intervention.


