Sustainability Annual Report 2024
UCSF had an active fiscal year 2024 focusing on several high-priority projects.
The first project involved implementing one Clinical Enterprise Management Recognition Plan goal to reduce waste by 78 tons by the end of the fiscal year. This required analyzing all waste streams and identifying actions necessary to reach the expected waste reduction targets in tonnage. Several waste reduction actions were selected and implemented in alignment with other organizational targets, dashboards, reporting to leadership and education throughout the organization.
Read More about Sustainability at UC San Francisco Health
The second project was implementation of the White House/Health and Human Services Climate Pledge, signed on to by UC Health to reduce 50% carbon emissions by 2030 and report selected scope 3 carbon emissions. This effort required establishing baselines and obtaining total spend for each of the selected scope 3 categories. Carbon emission factors of weight and dollar spend were calculated and reported. Categories included the scope 3 emissions required by UC policy: commute, business travel and waste. Additional categories included scope 3 emissions for relevant products and services. This was the first year of this data collection, which was new for UC and groundbreaking for UC Health.
The third high-priority project is implementation of a UC Health contract for climate resilience. This work required collaboration with several entities, including the City of San Francisco, UC, UCSF’s Emergency Management and Planning Departments, and the UCSF Office of Sustainability.
Stories
UCSF Health System’s Sustainability Journey: Pioneering New Practices to Minimize Nitrous Oxide Emissions
The University of California, San Francisco Health system is acting on its pledge to support climate health by leading the way nationally to remove central piped nitrous oxide (N2O) from its hospitals’ infrastructure. This bold and landmark move will significantly decrease the facility’s usage of N2O, an anesthetic agent and a potent greenhouse gas, reducing UCSF Health’s impact on the environment and moving one step closer toward health care decarbonization.
The Ambulatory Care Center Recycling Success Story
Back in June 2022, the City of San Francisco flagged the Ambulatory Care Center (ACC) at 400 Parnassus for having excessive contamination of its waste streams. As a result, UCSF Health was required to address the issue of incorrect compost, recycling and landfill sorting. Since then, the ACC has undergone a total waste transformation.
ENERGY USE INTENSITY (EUI)
UCSF Health saw a slight decrease in its EUI in the calendar year 2023.
FOOD
of food and beverage purchases met sustainability criteria ($919K)
of food and beverage purchases were plant-based ($2.2M)
Practice Greenhealth updated its definition and the certifications that qualify as “sustainable food,” including the way local spend is classified. This change contributed to UCSF Health’s decrease in sustainable food spend. The fiscal year 2024 reporting cycle was the first one under the new standards.
Green building
UCSF Health received no new LEED certifications last year. The location has 7 total LEED certifications.
2 Gold, 4 Silver and 1 Certified
Total number of LEED certifications
procurement
green spend on office supplies (34%)
cost savings through medical device reprocessing (representing 116,600 pounds of waste avoided)
UCSF Health Procurement is working to maximize its green spend, particularly for single-use devices to be reprocessed.
Green spend is defined as meeting preferred or minimum criteria in UC’s Sustainable Procurement Guidelines.
Suppliers reporting: Office supplies (1).
“Reprocessing” refers to the FDA-approved re-manufacturing process carried out on a used device, including cleaning, disinfection, sterilization, testing and related procedures to allow its safe reuse. This process allows health facilities to reduce their reliance on single-use devices.
WATER
*Based on a 3-year average of fiscal years 2005-08
**2025 goal is a 36% reduction from baseline.
ZERO WASTE – GENERATION
*Per capita figures are calculated using Adjusted Patient Day (APD).
**Data provided if not counted in other waste streams.
UCSF Health was an integral member of an effort across UC Health to improve waste diversion and reduction. A key improvement was the addition of waste sorters at UCSF Health’s two largest clinical sites to reduce recycling contamination. UCSF Health continues to work with Key Green Solutions, a sustainability data aggregation service, to improve data collection of all municipal and hazardous waste streams.
Single-Use Plastics Phase-Out
Complete Phase-out*
- Plastic bags
- Foodware in third-party dining facilities
- Beverage bottles in UC dining facilities
- Beverage bottles in vending machines
Partial Phase-out
- Foodware in UC dining facilities
Starting Soon
- N/A
*Complete phase-out of single-use plastics may include exemptions where reasonable alternatives to plastic do not exist.
UCSF Health made significant progress toward eliminating single-use plastics. All single-use water bottles have been converted to metal packaging. Additionally, soda containers have been converted to cans in all cafes, coffee shops and convenience stores.
Awards
UCSF Health was recognized for the 14th consecutive year by Practice Greenhealth with the Greenhealth Emerald Award. UCSF Health also received the Greening the Operating Room and Climate Circle of Excellence awards.
A full list of awards is featured on the UC Office of the President’s website.
Combined Data
Progress on the following policy areas for this Health System is reported by the campus location: