How Allina Health builds Green Teams that make a real impact

Each Allina Green Team started when a few motivated employees came forward with an idea. As the Environmental Sustainability Manager for more than 100 Allina Health locations, Suzanne Hansen is responsible for supporting these motivated employees in creating their Green Teams, assisting them with setting and measuring goals, and communicating their successes to the wider organization and public.

The first Allina Health Green Team was formed as a joint effort between the River Falls Area Hospital and United Hospital – Hastings Regina Campus in 2020. Since then, five more sites have begun Green Team programs.

Suzanne has found some common threads among successful Green Teams:

• A champion to inspire action: Every team needs someone to motivate and energize members. 
   
• A scheduler to keep things organized: Meetings need to happen, and someone must put them on the calendar. 
   
• A mix of team members from different departments: Suzanne recommends a facilities director, an administrator, nurse managers and clinicians for a hospital green team. 

For teams to get off the ground, management support is critical. Employees need to feel confident that they can bring forward ideas and dedicate their work time to pursuing them.  

Suzanne encourages teams to begin by hosting an event. Events, like a campus clean-up for Earth Day or a Clean Sweep, a big closet cleaning to remove unused items for reuse or donation, build awareness and offer opportunities for others to get involved. 

As teams gain traction, Suzanne helps them set goals that match the existing Allina Health objectives around energy efficiency and waste reduction. Being able to track progress is important. It not only helps the team stay motivated but also provides data for reporting and communications highlighting the team’s successes. 

Some recent successes from the Allina Health Green Teams include:

• Recycling the blue wrap that covers sterilization trays
   
• Converting to LED lights
   
• Creating the system’s first ever circular economy program for reusing unused and surplus items through an online platform
   
• Recycling plastic film waste into park benches
   
• Conducting energy efficiency and waste reduction assessments

Suzanne leads a small sustainability team and views the Green Teams as essential to achieving Allina Health’s sustainability goals. In a system as large as Allina Health, every extra set of hands makes a difference. For organizations without a dedicated sustainability manager, Green Teams can help fill that role and keep initiatives moving forward.

Suzanne’s advice for business leaders considering adding a Green Team to their operations is to “be open to listening to the passionate people who approach you with sustainability ideas. Let them know that it is OK to take work time to set up monthly meetings. Help them achieve quick wins with high visibility to build enthusiasm.”

Green Teams harness employees’ enthusiasm and allow them to work on projects that line up with their values. They are excellent for employee engagement, but it is essential that teams see tangible outcomes and understand the impact of their work. 

Learn more about the Allina Green Teams here.

See the short 2024 video honoring two Green Team members for their work.