When you set out to make your facility more environmentally friendly, there are a number of products that will help you consume less energy, emit fewer hazardous chemicals and send less material into the waste stream. Prioritize how you allocate your eco-friendly budget in order to keep your coffers as green as your ORs.

Shoot for the Star. Look around at all those computers, monitors, fax machines, telephones, microwaves and refrigerators that hum in your facility all day long. They're sapping valuable resources and increasing your energy costs with each passing minute. Energy Star, a program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy that identifies and rates energy-efficient products and facilities, says every dollar a non-profit healthcare organization saves on energy is equivalent to $20 in new revenues. Since small savings have the potential to make a big difference to your bottom line and the environment, look for the Energy Star label on the next appliance or medical device you purchase. That way you'll know you're choosing an energy-efficient model.

Then start thinking about the bigger issues, such as your facility's overall energy consumption. With a long-term strategy and commitment, energy consumption in most healthcare buildings can be reduced by about 30 percent, says Clark Reed, director of the healthcare facilities division at the EPA's Energy Star program. But even relatively minor adjustments can make a difference. Tuneups to HVAC systems, boilers and chillers, for example, can slash about 10 percent off your energy costs, says Mr. Reed.

Go with LEDs. Lighting the operating field is usually not a major source of energy consumption, but the lights are on during procedures for several hours a day. LED surgical lights use less energy and have bulbs that last much longer than conventional bulbs do. They also have another benefit in the OR. "They generate less heat," says Walter Vernon, an engineer at Mazzetti & Associates in San Francisco, Calif., which specializes in designing hospitals. Cooler lamps create a more comfortable environment for the OR team and reduce the amount of energy consumed by HVAC systems to cool the room.

At the 2008 annual conference of the American College of Surgeons, Juliana E. Hansen, MD, FACS, chief of plastic surgery and associate professor of surgery at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, presented the accomplishments of her hospital's 4-year going green program. She says the LED surgical lights installed in the hospital's ORs saved the facility 340,000 kWh of energy each year, resulting in annual savings of approximately $40,000. In addition, OHSU replaced 294,000 kWh of traditional energy with renewable energy sources that decreased the hospital's carbon output by 265,000 pounds each month.

Light savers. Lighting gobbles up 25 percent to 30 percent of the energy used in commercial buildings and even more than that in healthcare facilities, according to Practice Greenhealth. Two simple adjustments can reduce lighting's energy consumption: use controlled lighting in infrequently visited rooms and change the overhead light source to a more efficient option.

For example, incandescent lights can be replaced with fluorescent bulbs, which use less energy and create less heat. In order to get the most from your investment in new lights, start by changing the lights that are turned on most often. One potential negative issue with fluorescent bulbs is that they contain a small amount of mercury. (A compact fluorescent bulb has 5mg of mercury, while a standard household thermometer has 500g of mercury, according to a July 17, 2007, article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.) Switching to fluorescent bulbs requires setting up a collection method so they'll be recycled rather than sent to landfills, where the mercury can escape into the environment.

Install controlled lighting in the areas of your facility with limited foot traffic, says Mr. Reed. Use timer switches for non-essential lights located in storage areas and lounges, for example, and install occupancy sensors to darken essential rooms, such as ORs, when they're not in use.

Occupancy sensors can also be used to control the HEPA air filtering systems in ORs in order to reduce ventilation rates when the room is vacant. These air-filtering sensors reduce the amount of energy consumed when the OR is unoccupied, says Don Rainey, a Seattle-based energy management consultant specializing in healthcare facilities.

It's a wrap. Recycling is good. Reusing is better. Switch to reusable products such as sterile instrument containers and washable gowns to keep waste out of the landfill. Limiting your use of blue wrap, for example, is one simple way to make a major environmental impact. The material, made from polypropylene, is used to wrap instruments prior to sterilization. The majority of the mountains of waste generated by surgical facilities is made up of the material, according to the California Integrated Waste Management Board, an agency that oversees, manages and tracks the state's generated waste. The CIWMB suggests you coordinate efforts within your ORs to collect and consolidate blue wrap for recycling. Better yet, place instruments in reusable, hard instrument cases that can be placed in autoclaves wrap-free.