In May, Madigan Army Medical Center (MAMC) was among 270 hospitals that were recognized for their environmental achievements.

However, MAMC was the only Army facility, (along with 26 civilian hospitals and facilities) that received the Partners for Change, with Distinction Award.

The award is one of several bestowed on facilities throughout the country by Practice Greenhealth, the leading membership and networking organization for institutions in the healthcare community that have made a commitment to sustainable, eco-friendly practices.

The environmental practices at Madigan are in concert with the Joint Base Lewis-McChord's Environment Sustainability Program, said Michael Kyser, who, since 1995, has worked as an environmental protection specialist at Madigan.

As the third largest U.S. Army CONUS installation, Fort Lewis, (now joint Base Lewis-McChord) was one of the first Army installations to implement a mandated sustainability program that includes six teams who each oversee one of six environmental sustainability goals.

The first team oversees the air quality goal of reducing the stationary source (generators), and the non-tactical motor vehicle (privately owned vehicles) air emissions by 85 percent, by 2025, Kyser said.

The second team deals with the energy goals of reducing total energy consumption by 30 percent by 2015, and sustaining all activities on post using renewable energy sources and generate all electricity on post by 2025.

The third team is in charge of the sustainable community goal.  The objective of this goal is to create sustainable neighborhoods for a livable community, Kyser said.

"This goal will allow people who live at JBLM access to the gym, the PX, the commissary and other places by way of bike or walking trails, which would decrease driving and traveling by motor vehicles on post," he said.

The fourth team works with the products and materials goal, to achieve a zero net waste by 2025, Kyser said.

"This means that every material used would avoid being wasted out to the landfill," he said.

Currently, MAMC has implemented a single use device reprocessing system that involves buying bio-degradable products - blood-pressure cuffs, bedpans, pulse-oximeters, T-cuffs, and sequential compression devices - which are then recycled, he said.

"We are recycling the items, but due to contracting logistics, we have not started buying these products back yet," Kyser said. "JBLM receives monetary credit for these items through the recycling program."

The fifth team oversees the sustainable training lands goal to maintain the ability of JBLM to meet its current and future military missions without compromising the integrity of natural and cultural resources, he said.

The sixth team works on the water resources goal of treating all wastewaters to Class A reclaim standards by 2025 to conserve water resources, he said.

Now winning awards, and modeling environmentally friendly practices for other military installations, the sustainability program at MAMC has come a long way since 1995 when Kyser started working at the medical center, he said.

For starters, shortly after he started at MAMC Kyser performed a gap analysis and found several deficiencies that included no recycling of laboratory solvents, and the silver recovery didn't meet regulatory discharge standards due to outdated technology, he said.

The biggest changes and improvements came in 2001, when Ft. Lewis, (now JBLM), started a sustainability program that required all tenant activities, including Madigan to participate, he said.

A recycling program was started at the hospital, for which logistics provided containers for prescription bottles, plastic cans, and bottles, which housekeeping picks up, he said.

Also in 2001, MAMC began sorting out the aluminum cans from the plastic bottles to allow MAMC military troop command to receive the proceeds from recycling in their unit fund, he said.  Since 1995, the hospital has implemented new programs and has won awards in areas originally identified with deficits, Kyser said.

For example, in 2007, MAMC received the Energy Star Award, given by the Environmental Protection Agency to honor organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through energy efficiency; and the Making Medicine Mercury Free Award, given to hospitals that have become mercury-free.

"We are very proud of our sustainability program," Kyser said. "It is an evolving process.  We are setting the standards for environmentally-friendly ... medical centers."