By Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
Mackay Memorial Hospital yesterday signed a sustainable hospital initiative with the Taiwan Institute for Sustainable Energy (TAISE) to help reduce carbon emissions, as healthcare systems are responsible for more than 4 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.
Hospital superintendent Chang Wen-han (張文瀚) said the 143-year-old institution has always sought to take care of the vulnerable, improve medical care and maintain its commitment to services and social responsibility.
As healthcare facilities exist to help people, the hospital must make an effort to improve people’s living quality, so it is implementing environmental, social and governance practices, Chang said.
Photo: CNA
Reducing carbon emissions, bolstering social support and contributing to sustainable development are all important to its management, he said.
Witnessed by hospital chairman Hsiao Tsong-ying (蕭聰穎), who was accompanied by the top executives of the hospital’s five other branches, Chang and TAISE president Eugene Chien (簡又新) signed the initiative.
July was the hottest month on record worldwide, but it might be even hotter next year, as excessive greenhouse gas emissions since the Industrial Revolution have caused the Earth’s surface temperature to increase, Chien said.
Healthcare systems are responsible for about 4.6 percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide, higher than the yearly emissions from tens of thousands of jet planes, which account for about 3 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions, he said.
The healthcare system should not be excluded from the government’s carbon-reduction strategy, he added.
Commercial electricity consumption is mainly divided between the industrial and service sectors, with electricity used by healthcare facilities accounting for about one-sixth of the total consumption of the service sector — more than public transportation, including railway systems, he said.
TAISE first began working with businesses on carbon reduction and sustainable development, before collaborating with universities, and this year started working with hospitals, 43 of which have joined in the effort so far, he said.
Mackay Memorial Hospital is promoting going paperless in departments, improving equipment and substance management methods in laboratories and examination centers, and starting an eyeglasses recycling program, among other carbon reduction measures.
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