Elizabeth Schenk, director of environmental stewardship at Providence Health System.
For as long as she can remember, Elizabeth Schenk, the director of environmental stewardship at Providence Health System, has cared about Planet Earth.
In sixth grade, she founded a group with her classmates called The Anti-Pollutionists. They held community fundraisers to help support local environmental causes.
Even as her life path led her to the nursing profession in the 1990s, her interest in protecting our home planet never wavered.
It only grew after she became a practicing nurse and took notice of a problem at work.
“One day, I raised my head and said, ‘Wow! This is ridiculously wasteful. Look at all of this garbage we produce.’”
‘Waste: The gateway drug to environmental stewardship’
Schenk got to work almost immediately. In 1993, she put together her first Green Team, a committee that identifies and implements sustainability initiatives.
“I call waste the gateway drug to environmental stewardship.”
Core to her success has been engaging nurses and ensuring they are on the front lines of sustainability initiatives.
That’s because, as she puts it, nurses touch just about every aspect of healthcare generated waste, including narcotics and chemotherapy waste, as well as cardboard and clean, unused medical supplies that could otherwise be donated.
In fact, hospitals generate more than 29 pounds of waste per bed per day, according to Practice Greenhealth, a healthcare environmental stewardship nonprofit.
In response, at Providence, rather than being thrown out, unused medical supplies are shipped for use around the world or donated to schools and veterinarians. Disposable items have been eliminated where possible and replaced with reusable items, such as isolation gowns and dishware.
Ambassadors for health and climate change
Schenk wants everyone to have conservation in mind constantly and transform how they think about climate and health because the two are inextricably connected.
Nurses, she says, are terrific ambassadors to take a leading role in leading this transformation of healthcare and educating their patients about climate change and their health.
“We have an ability to translate, and we do it constantly,” she points out.
“We are translating complex, very science-focused diagnostic information into treatment information. We explain that to people who have varying levels of literacy.”
This translation skill will be critical as the climate crisis worsens. Patients will need more guidance and information about preventing climate-related harm and adapting to changes driven by it.
And with 4 million nurses across the United States, “We are in just about every healthcare situation anywhere. If healthcare is going to take this on, we sure need nurses to be involved.”
Luckily, she says, they want to be involved and engaged because they see how climate change harms their patients, particularly the most vulnerable.
Leading health system environmental stewardship
Today, the nurse leader has a mission to reduce greenhouse gases at Providence to help avoid the worst outcomes. Time is of the essence.
“We are in this circumstance where the ability to maintain and protect good health is being eroded by the fast-changing circumstances of our planet.”
“We want to transform the way we think about this in all of healthcare,” she says. “And when people decide to do this, they can start making an impact right away.”
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