Ramsay Health Care recognises that protecting the environment is a critical issue and a key responsibility of the business and corporate community. The benefits of environmental protection for current and future generations are clear, but Ramsay Health Care also acknowledges that reducing unnecessary waste and minimizing consumption of scarce resources is consistent with ongoing financial sustainability in terms of meeting the expectations of our customers, reducing costs and minimizing risks.

Ramsay Health Care has invested significant resources into this area and is currently working on several important environmental initiatives that will lead to better outcomes for all.

Through its operations, Ramsay Health Care and all its hospitals are committed to:

• Eliminating unnecessary waste
• Resource conservation
• Reducing energy (all forms) consumption
• Water efficiency management
• Monitoring, reporting and reducing emissions of all pollutants
• Evaluating whole-of-life savings of investing in new buildings and plant infrastructure
• Complying with regulations and standards

In 2007, Ramsay Health Care established an Environment & Sustainable Development Working Party with the following agenda to:

• Accelerate Ramsay’s environmental strategy through prioritising and allocating resources to environmental projects
• Systematically address environmental compliance at our hospitals
• Integrate environmental strategies with good business planning
• Where economically feasible, integrate Sustainable Built Environment principles and initiatives into ‘Brownfield’ developments
• Lower costs through more efficient use of resources and reduced waste
• Focus on Supply Chain Management
• Actively engage employees in the process

Ramsay Health Care has entered into Memorandum of Understanding with Department of Environment & Climate Change (NSW) through its Sustainable Advantage Program. The results will assist us to better understand where opportunities for energy and waste minimisation and water reduction can be progressed at a hospital level.

Many Ramsay Health Care hospitals are already recording excellent results particularly in the area of water and energy conservation and Ramsay is encouraging all its facilities to get behind these important initiatives.

• Hollywood - has won “Greening of Hollywood” ACHS Award for a range of initiatives including tree planting, recycling, using earth friendly power etc
• Hillcrest - CQ Best Corporate Award for waste reduction initiatives
• Joondalup Health Campus - worm farms introduced to reduce waste from kitchen
• Greenslopes Private Hospital - reduced water by 13% since 04/05 (despite expanding) & on track to achieve 25% reduction by 2008.
• Wangaratta - redirecting water from CSD has saved up to 600 litres a day.
• Pindara - started “Watch Every Drop” campaign.