Hospitals for a Healthy Environment (H2E) is an independent, not for profit organization dedicated to providing education, tools and information about best environmental practices to help health care professionals improve operational efficiency, increase compliance, and improve the health of their communities.

H2E was jointly founded by the American Hospital Association, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Health Care Without Harm and the American Nurses Association. Today, H2E is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a national movement for environmental sustainability in health care. It achieves its mission by educating health care professionals about pollution prevention opportunities and providing a wealth of practical tools and resources to facilitate the industry's movement toward environmental sustainability.

Since its inception, H2E has developed a number of tools to aid in the education and implementation of hospital pollution prevention programs. These tools include:

• A website full of practical tools, information, and resources.
• A peer-to-peer listserv that allows health care professionals to ask technical questions and receive advice and feedback from their peers.
• Monthly teleconferences for H2E Partners where expert speakers address practical solutions to the many environmental challenges faced by today's health care facilities.
• A monthly newsletter, STATGreen, that includes an H2E Partner's success story in dealing with a particular environmental challenge, information about the upcoming H2E teleconference, and a variety of other features.
• Model waste minimization, mercury elimination, and other pollution prevention plans.

In 2006, H2E became an independent not-for-profit organization and expanded its goals to include:

• Virtual elimination of mercury
• Reduction of the quantity and toxicity of health care waste – from manufacturing, purchase and use of products and materials, to improved end-of-life management
• Minimization of use and exposure to hazardous chemicals, including persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) substances
• Reducing health care’s environmental footprint through resource conservation and other measurable environmental improvements
• Integrating sustainable design and building techniques with environmentally sound operational practices to create true healing environments

H2E Partner organizations include:

• Health care facilities
• Health systems
• Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs)
• Health care professional or trade associations
• Vendors, manufacturers, consultants, and other service providers
• Local, state or regional environmental agencies
• Member or community-based organizations working with health care facilities

While medical waste treatment and waste disposal in general is a multi-billion dollar industry, most hospitals are not aware of the amounts of waste they generate, or even how much they spend annually on disposal, not to mention the environmental impacts created in the process. H2E provides practical, cost effective solutions to many of these issues.