4th July 2022
Blackrock Health Hermitage Clinic has this week joined an exclusive list of Irish hospitals which have received EcoMerit Certification, a prestigious mark of the Clinic’s efforts to significantly reduce the environmental impact of its operations.
EcoMerit is a leading Irish environmental certification company which helps Irish businesses to improve their environmental performance. Their Certification Programme focuses on waste, water and energy impacts.
Hermitage Clinic has been working with EcoMerit to measure and monitor its environmental performance and put in place a plan to increase sustainability efforts in the next five years.
To achieve Certification, Hermitage Clinic underwent a process in which comprehensive data was collected on its carbon footprint, energy, waste and water usage. Key actions were then identified for increasing efficiency across these areas, along with actions relating to supply chain greening and the promotion of biodiversity.
The Clinic will continue to record and submit data to EcoMerit on an ongoing basis in order to optimise its operations further over time.
EcoMerit Certified companies have achieved average emissions reductions of 60% over 10 years. In attaining EcoMerit Certification, Hermitage Clinic joins its Blackrock Health sister clinics, Galway Clinic, which became certified in March of this year, and Blackrock Clinic, which was the first hospital in Ireland to attain Certification back in November 2015.
Through the energy saving initiatives EcoMerit has helped them to implement, all three Clinics are delivering on Blackrock Health’s strategic environmental priorities and doing their part to help Ireland reach carbon neutrality by 2050.
Blackrock Health Hermitage Clinic CEO Gordon Dunne said of the achievement:
“Hermitage Clinic’s attainment of EcoMerit certification is a great honour for everyone on our team. At Blackrock Health Hermitage Clinic, sustainability is a cornerstone of everything we do. Safeguarding our communities and protecting our planet by minimising the environmental impact of our operations is one of our main strategic priorities.
In the current climate crisis, we all must play a part in keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees. Ireland has set a target to reduce its carbon emissions by 7% annually, and hospitals have a huge role to play in reducing our use of resources to support this ambition.
For hi-tech hospitals such as Blackrock Health Hermitage Clinic, small steps towards greater energy efficiency can be particularly effective. By their nature, hospitals produce a large amount of waste, which is complex to deal with. The scale at which we work means our energy requirements are also substantial.
By introducing the simple, straightforward efficiencies outlined to us by the EcoMerit team, we and our sister clinics stand to reduce the overall environmental impact of our operations by more than half over the next ten years. These are the steps which could end up having a substantial impact on the health of our environment for decades to come.”