Four hospitals within Hackensack Meridian Health’s integrated health network (Edison, N.J.) achieved The Joint Commission’s (Washington, D.C.) Sustainable Healthcare Certification (SHC), which provides a framework to support healthcare organizations’ decarbonization efforts.

The four Hackensack Meridian Health hospitals include:

To achieve certification, the four hospitals set priorities and governance for sustainability initiatives, including creating baselines to measure three sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and developing an action plan to reduce them.

The hospitals also underwent a virtual certification review to assess their compliance with the SHC program’s requirements.

As a network, Hackensack Meridian Health’s sustainability efforts include investing more than $116 million in energy-efficient infrastructure upgrades. In late 2023, the organization had four other hospitals achieve The Joint Commission’s Healthcare Equity Certification, a voluntary advanced certification that guides forward movement in imbedding health care equity in all aspects of care, treatment, and service delivery.,

Additionally, as one of the original signatories to the White House and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Climate Pledge, Hackensack Meridian Health and The Joint Commission have each pledged to reduce GHG emissions by 50 percent by 2030 and to achieve net zero by 2050.

For more, read “The Joint Commission Announces Sustainable Healthcare Certification For U.S. Hospitals.”