Hospitals and health care facilities are among the largest consumers of water in our communities. And they can inadvertently pollute water systems if they do not adequately manage their pharmaceutical and hazardous waste.

Kaiser Permanente has been taking aggressive steps to reduce our impact on local and regional water systems surrounding our facilities.

Water reduction goal

By 2025, we will reduce the amount of water we use by 25 percent per square foot of buildings.

Our current progress:

• Water intensity declined across our facilities by 14 percent in 2017 (against 2013 baseline). Some facilities attained greater than 20 percent reductions.
• Our shift to renewable energy sources (such as solar and wind) will help reduce our “water footprint” by 100 million gallons of water a year.
• Our use of digital X-ray processing has enhanced image analysis while also cutting down on large amounts of water and chemicals needed for traditional film processing.