Successful strategies that hospitals and other health care facilities are using to increase environmental sustainability, reduce costs, and improve patient care were the focus of an event at the White House on July 24. Blair Sadler, a Hastings Center board member and Fellow, was among the panelists invited by the Executive Office of the President, Council on Environmental Quality. Sadler spoke on reducing costs through sustainable health care.   

Two panel discussions addressed the increasing sustainability efforts of hospitals, their health effects, and the links between environmental sustainability and economic profitability. Benefits include saving thousands of dollars on energy, waste, and water bills, and creating a safer and healthier atmosphere for patients and hospital employees.   

Sadler, a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Healthcare Improvement and a former President and Chief Executive Officer of Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego, has been heavily involved in developing the business case for building better hospitals through evidence-based design. He has consulted with health systems throughout the world on building optimally safe and low-stress hospitals and has written on the evolving business argument for evidence-based design of hospitals, including an essay coauthored in 2011 in the Hastings Center Report.