Applying a Health Lens to Business Practices, Policies, and Investments Workshop Summary (2016) / Chapter Skim
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3 Business Practices to Produce Health
3 Business Practices to Produce Health
Pages 15-32
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From page 15... ...
, discussed the development and implementation of the company's collaborative blueprint for sustainability, and how health is a key component of that sustainability. Gary Cohen, president and co-founder of Health Care Without Harm, described the organization's issue-specific approach to transforming the health sector to be environmentally sustainable, and making hospitals and health systems anchor institutions in communities and leading advocates for environmental health and justice.
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MAKING THE HEALTHY CHOICE THE EASY CHOICE Soler started his presentation by showing a video from the Designed to Move campaign, produced by Nike in collaboration with PHA and a number of other organizations.1 The main message of the video is that if current trends continue, children today will be the first generation to live shorter lives than their parents. PHA focuses on ending obesity, and Soler shared several examples of how PHA is working with private-sector 1The video can be viewed as part of the complete video of Soler's presentation at http:// iom.nationalacademies.org/Activities/PublicHealth/PopulationHealthImprovement RT/2015-JUN-04/Videos/Panel%20I/6-Soler-Video.aspx (accessed November 19, 2015)
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, early childhood education, healthier marketplace (including reformulating foods and beverages) , and healthy foods in hospitals, college campuses, affordable housing development, and physical activity.
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As part of their commitment to PHA, child care centers are serving fruits and vegetables and healthier beverages at every meal and snack, having water available, encouraging family-style eating whenever possible, providing at least 1 hour of physical activity per day, and limiting screen time. Soler noted that getting the initiative going was difficult, but once the first private partner signed on, it became a competitive advantage for that company, and others became interested as well.
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Having an organization such as PHA bring groups together has been helpful. Soler noted that support from consumers has also been essential to bringing healthier foods to the marketplace.
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Dow's 2025 Sustainability Goals introduce the notion of a collaborative blueprint for sustainability, which Weick said builds on previous 10-year commitments that were focused on the company footprint (1995-2005) and handprint (2006-2015)
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, with a new focus on what Greg Norris of Harvard University calls the handprint, that is, how Dow's products and services help its customers solve their sustainability challenges.6 Dow focused on supply chains and reducing the risks to communities and employees by reducing the volume of hazardous chemicals being transported to market. This meant redefining how the supply chains were working, and where plants needed to be placed.
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In other words, he said, for every unit of energy Dow uses, Dow returns six times that benefit back to society. 10 See http://storage.dow.com.edgesuite.net/dow.com/sustainability/goals/BTWC-White Paper-BETAMATE-TM-Structural-Adhesives-Web.pdf (accessed July 31, 2015)
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Goal 4: Valuing nature. Dow applies a business decision process that values nature, and which will deliver business value and natural capital value through projects that are good for the company and good for ecosystems.
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HEALTH CARE WITHOUT HARM The health care sector is the one sector in the economy that operates within an ethical framework to "do no harm," Cohen said. Health care in the United States accounts for 18 percent of the economy and uses an enormous amount of energy (mostly fossil fuels)
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said there was enough mercury pollution in the environment that it could impact brain development in utero. Just as Mercury was the messenger god, Cohen said, mercury use in health care was a clarion call for the need to address the environmental and health impacts of the hundreds of problematic chemicals that are in the system (in supply chains, buildings, medical devices, etc.)
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Hospitals are using their purchasing powers to support more local and sustainable food production in the communities they serve. Better food purchasing strategies impact climate, environmental health, patient safety, and worker health.
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Given its enormous presence in American society, the health care sector can have a huge catalytic impact on the rest of the economy, Cohen said. Health Care Without Harm is working with hospitals around the country to see themselves as economic anchor institutions for improving community food environments by modeling nutrition and improving environmental health inside and outside their facilities.
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Educating the health profession about environmental health is critical, he said. To be able to address population health issues, providers need to understand how the environment (e.g., food, climate change, toxic chemicals)
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A challenge for Health Care Without Harm was making the business case to bring investor-owned hospital systems to the table. Cohen said the early adopters around sustainability issues in the health care sector were the not-for-profit organizations, including Kaiser, and the Catholic faithbased institutions with a core mission to be an overall healing ministry.
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Isham of HealthPartners concurred and emphasized the importance of incorporating the social and environmental bottom lines into the cost of doing business. A participant pointed out the need to comply with international requirements with regard to environmental and health impact.
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If people are demanding safer food, cleaner energy, and safer products, then the supply chain in health care will respond, and the broader supply chain will follow. As long as health care is rewarded for doing more procedures, more tests, and more interventions, Cohen said, there are no incentives for prevention and population health goals.
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Health Care Without Harm is also working with the Democracy Collaborative to get large employers, health care systems, and universities in Oakland and Richmond, California, to redirect their supply chains to create green, healthy jobs. Weick said that Dow's sustainability goals include contributing to community success.
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