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.

At Kaiser Permanente, we’ve 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% per square foot of buildings.

Our current progress:

• Water intensity (water usage per square foot) declined across our facilities by more than 13% as of mid-2021 compared to 2013. Some of our geographic regions attained greater than 15% reductions.
• Our shift to renewable energy sources (such as solar and wind) will help reduce our water usage 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.