Kaiser Permanente Recognized for Sustainable Electronics Purchasing Practices

For the third consecutive year, Kaiser Permanente has been recognized with an Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool Purchaser Award for purchasing environmentally friendly electronics.

EPEAT is a free and trusted source of environmental product ratings that makes it easy to select high-performance electronics that support organizations’ IT and sustainability goals.

At Kaiser Permanente, we recognize that healthy communities and a healthy environment are critical to the health and wellness of every person. Creating these has always been central to our mission.

In an effort to achieve a healthier environment Kaiser Permanente has pledged to reach the following environmental goals by the year 2025:

• Become “carbon net positive” by buying enough clean energy and carbon offsets to remove more greenhouse gases from the atmosphere than we emit.
• Buy all of our food locally or from farms and producers that use sustainable practices, including using antibiotics responsibly.
• Recycle, reuse or compost 100 percent of our non-hazardous waste.
• Reduce the amount of water we use by 25 percent per square foot of buildings.
• Increase our purchase of products and materials that meet environmental standards to 50 percent.

By purchasing more than 129,000 EPEAT-registered electronics in 2016, Kaiser Permanente has made an important step toward these 2025 goals. Specifically, compared to products that do not meet EPEAT criteria, these electronics will:

• Reduce use of primary materials by 19,193 metric tons, equivalent to the weight of 525 tractor-trailers.
• Avoid the disposal of 124 metric tons of hazardous waste, equal to the weight of 1,009 refrigerators.
• Eliminate the equivalent of 355 U.S. households’ solid waste for a year — 664 metric tons.
• Avoid the use of 85.4 metric tons of water-pollutant emissions

In addition, EPEAT’s requirement that registered products meet the latest Energy Star specifications means these products will consume less energy throughout their useful life, resulting in:

• Savings of 54.2 million kWh of electricity
• Reduction of 9,193 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, equal to an average of 6,609 fewer U.S. passenger cars on the road for a year
• Cost savings of $5,594,492