A citywide initiative in Chicago to measure heat and humidity across communities unveiled stark health disparities. Research found that the West Side experiences disproportionate environmental burdens compared to more affluent neighborhoods. One health system in Chicago is seeking to curb greenhouse gas emissions and change those statistics by decreasing the environmental footprint of their operations.
Rush University System for Health learned there’s a 14-to-16-year life expectancy gap between Chicago's predominantly white affluent neighborhoods and its historically disadvantaged West Side.
“Even though our anchor mission strategy is addressing those root causes of inequities, it's important that we also work on our decarbonization efforts to ensure that those populations that we're trying to help are going to succeed from an environmental standpoint,” Jinia Sarkar, MSc, sustainability manager at Rush University Medical Center, said during an AMA Ed Hub™ webinar, “Decarbonizing the Health Care Sector.”
Rush University System for Health is part of the AMA Health System Member Program, which provides enterprise solutions to equip leadership, physicians and care teams with resources to help drive the future of medicine.
The health care sector accounts for about 8.5% of greenhouse gas emissions and produces more than 5 million tons of waste annually. Health care systems like Rush are working to proactively address climate change by reducing their carbon footprint.
“Understanding the different sources of emissions and where health systems can have the most influence is important for deciding how to begin the work of reducing health care's carbon footprint,” said Ilse R. Levin, DO, MPH, TM, who moderated the webinar. Dr. Levin, an epidemiologist, is a member of the AMA Board of Trustees and a hospital-based physician for the Mid-Atlantic Permanente Medical Group in the D.C.-Southern Maryland region, which is also part of the AMA Health System Member Program.
Greenhouse gas emissions are generally organized into three main categories, said Dr. Levin.
Scope 1, direct emissions, come from owned or directly controlled sources of the health care sector. Onsite boilers and emissions of certain medical gases are examples of direct emissions. Scope 2 refers to indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy, and Scope 3 includes other indirect emissions that occur from producing and transporting goods and services across the supply chain.
A plan for 50% emissions reduction
Rush University System for Health has two lofty goals: to decrease Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% by 2030, and achieve net zero emissions by 2050, said Sarkar. The AMA reiterated those same goals when it declared climate change a public health crisis in 2022.
“We've been working on understanding ways we can achieve decarbonization in a way that amplifies and improves our ongoing equity efforts,” said Sarkar. In one project supporting a local job-creating linen enterprise, Rush joined nonprofit West Side United to promote racial equity and directly address the life expectancy and income gaps in one West Side neighborhood.
Learn more about the decarbonization steps recommended in AMA policy adopted in 2022.
Laundry partnership decreases emissions by 75%
Before intentional efforts to reduce emissions, Rush’s institutions had been sending laundry to the western side of Illinois or sometimes out of state to neighboring Wisconsin. These laundry facilities usually were older and had less efficient machinery.
Discussions with West Side United’s team identified laundry as a high-volume service that could be relocated to the West Side to drive economic opportunity and reduce Rush’s environmental impact.
Rush ended up partnering with laundry service Fillmore Linen to provide a local laundry option. The partnership has driven opportunity through local job creation on the West Side, reducing Rush’s Scope 3 emissions.
Over one year, “we saved approximately 16,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from shifting our laundry service to a closer site compared to our previous laundry contract,” said Sarkar.
This resulted in a 75% decrease in transportation-related emissions from laundry. An additional benefit is Rush is limiting harmful pollutants from trucks on the highways that pass through Chicago’s West Side.
“Not to mention the facility is fitted with new high efficiency equipment, which has decreased our natural gas and electricity related emissions as well as our water used for our laundry linen alone per year,” said Sarkar.
There’s an economic piece to this as well. Half of Fillmore’s 80 full-time staff reside in West Side ZIP codes. In addition to a competitive wage, employees are getting a chance—for perhaps the first times in their lives—to enroll in employer-sponsored health insurance as well as participate in services like housing and transportation support, and financial and substance abuse counseling.
Electric vehicle charging for patients and employees
Rush has collaborated with energy efficiency firm Resource Innovations to develop a five-year charging vision to maximize the percent of electric miles driven by Rush visitors and staff. The focus was to address EV charging “deserts,” which exist in the West Side of Chicago.
The project also offered an opportunity to decrease emissions from employee and patient travel to campus.
Resource Innovations “helped us to evaluate the chargers we should add, as well as engage with key stakeholders for our pilot project, which ultimately led to about 25 chargers being installed in our public facing garage,” said Sarkar.
The pilot was at no cost to the users themselves, who got to charge their vehicles for free in exchange for their feedback on the program.
“We heard a lot from a lot of different users with regards to those EV chargers,” said Sarkar. Overall, the pilot was a success. One of the biggest complaints was the EV charger was behind a paywall in the parking garage—a challenge Rush is actively looking to solve.
Rush will be thinking more about the placement of community electric vehicle chargers to promote alternative forms of transport, not only to and from campus, but also for the larger community, noted Sarkar.
“Ultimately, we're hoping that this could be an impetus for shifting transit opportunities away from gasoline-based vehicles and collecting better data with regards to emissions reductions of how patients get to and from and staff get to and from our facility,” she said.
Investing in solar energy
Rush is also decreasing its Scope 2 emissions by focusing on one of its largest emission categories, purchased electricity. The health system has invested in large scale community solar gardens developed at off-site locations by private developers to generate clean, carbon-free electricity.
By investing in community solar, Rush hopes to decrease emissions from Scope 2 by about 50% while supporting the state and grid transition away from fossil fuels, contributing to development of clean energy workforce and receiving cost savings through state incentives.
Rush has committed to multi-year contracts with solar power partners through the Illinois Community Solar Program, which helps institutions reduce their carbon footprint and supports renewable energy access in local communities. Homeowners, small businesses and hospitals can share the benefits of offsite solar farms.
“These solar farms ultimately add renewable electricity into the regional power grid,” Sarkar explained. Subscribers can receive utility bill credits based on the portion of the power produced.
State incentives are involved as well. “This is a win-win in terms of investing in the community as well as getting cost savings for our energy use,” she added.
Another plus is solar projects tend to benefit areas that have historically faced high pollution burdens and lacked access to clean energy investments. Such investments are helping to develop local jobs, infrastructure and more affordable energy in neighborhoods that need them most.
“We’re excited about this opportunity not only to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but also to align with our mission and longstanding commitment to improving the health and vitality of Chicago,” said Sarkar.
Visit AMA Advocacy in Action to find out what’s at stake in combating the health effects of climate change and other advocacy priorities the AMA is actively working on.
