Already a global leader in climate action, organization sets in motion its most ambitious plan ever for a healthier future.

[Oakland, CA] Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest integrated health system, today announced new and ambitious environmental goals for the year 2025 that include becoming carbon positive, buying only sustainably produced food and sending zero waste to landfills.

The new long-term goals build on the health care organization’s longstanding environmental-stewardship commitment, and will further align its business practices with its purpose of helping people and communities thrive.

Kaiser Permanente pledges that by 2025 it will:

• Become “carbon net positive” by buying enough clean energy and carbon offsets to remove more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than it emits.
• Buy all of its food locally or from farms and producers that use sustainable practices, including using antibiotics responsibly.
• Recycle, reuse or compost 100 percent of its non-hazardous waste.
• Reduce the amount of water it uses by 25 percent per square foot of buildings.
• Increase its purchase of products and materials that meet environmental standards to 50 percent.
• Meet international standards for environmental management at all its hospitals.
• Pursue new collaborations to reduce environmental risks to the foodsheds, watersheds and air basins supplying its communities.

All of these goals will be achieved through strategies that support both health and affordability.

“At Kaiser Permanente, we know what creates good health begins well beyond our own doors,” said Raymond Baxter, PhD, senior vice president of community benefit, research and health policy. “Our aim with these new goals is to go beyond eliminating our own environmental impact to help restore, renew and revitalize our communities... (continue reading).

About Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 10.6 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management.