Rush has earned international recognition for its investment in the community and efforts to reduce its carbon footprint.
The International Hospital Federation gave Rush honorable mentions in two awards categories:
- The Ashikaga-Nikken Excellence Award for Low-Carbon Healthcare, which recognizes hospitals that demonstrate excellence in low-carbon health care initiatives.
- The Seddiqi Holding Excellence Award for Social and Environmental Responsibility, which recognizes Rush’s partnership in developing and contracting with Fillmore Linen Service.
“At Rush, we believe everyone should get the chance to live their healthiest lives,” said sustainability manager Jinia Sarkar. “We are honored that Rush and its partners are being recognized for improving health by focusing on equity and environmental sustainability.”
Commitment to cutting carbon emissions
Nationally, health care is estimated to make up nearly 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Locally, the communities on Chicago’s West Side face long-standing health and environmental inequities and are disproportionately vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Reducing the carbon footprint supports preventive medicine and environmental justice.
In a dense urban environment like Chicago, becoming more efficient and making smarter operational decisions contributes to broader community resilience: By decreasing peak load on the electrical grid, for example, Sarkar said Rush helps minimize the risk of blackouts and power supply disruptions in the city, supporting a more stable environment not only for the hospital but for the benefit of neighboring communities.
Rush’s Office of Environmental Sustainability has been strongly committed to significantly reducing the hospital’s emissions, targeting a 50% reduction in direct greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Over the past three years, this cross-functional initiative has led to the implementation of 33 energy conservation measures. These projects were identified by using the building’s existing monitoring software to find areas where Rush could strategically cut back on energy consumption.
These low-and no-cost projects have delivered consistent, measurable impact, including three consecutive years of more than 2 million kWh of electricity savings annually, and natural gas reductions equaling the amount of energy used by 604 homes.
“As a non-profit academic medical center, we need to be creative with how we decrease our carbon emissions. By collaborating with our facilities team, we are continuously identifying innovative solutions to drive energy reductions,” Sarkar said.
“Sustainability is a team sport, and as we grow our initiatives and positive impact, our facilities team has been an incredible partner in actively driving and expanding our energy efficiency work,” said Ian Hughes, director of environmental sustainability at Rush. “It’s incredible to be recognized for this work on an international stage.”
Rush’s partnership with Fillmore Linen Service
Instead of shipping hospital linens out of state to be laundered, Rush identified an opportunity to localize operations, bringing jobs and reducing environmental impact to North Lawndale, a historically disinvested West Side neighborhood.
The partnership with Fillmore Linen Service originated from Rush’s anchor mission strategy and health equity work. Rush is looking to narrow the 20-year life expectancy gap between Chicago’s more affluent neighborhoods and the historically disadvantaged West Side.
From an environmental standpoint, the linen service has significantly lessened Rush’s environmental burden on the community:
- Transitioning to a local, high-efficiency laundry significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions and water use, with more than 2.4 million gallons of water saved each year, or enough water to fill three Olympic-sized swimming pools.
- Before the partnership, Rush was outsourcing 6 million pounds of linen annually to a vendor 40 miles away. Now, the distance is just four miles from Rush’s main campus.
- Transportation-related emissions reduced by 75%, equaling the same amount of pollution 3,809 gas-powered cars emit in a year.
Fillmore has also brought jobs to North Lawndale:
- Fillmore has created 80 new full-time staff positions in the neighborhood, offering full benefits including health insurance and child care support, even more than the 68 originally expected. Half of these employees live in West Side neighborhoods. By April 2027, supporters hope the laundry will have created 175 local living-wage jobs.
- The average employee wage is well above the median annual income of the neighborhood: Fillmore employees on average make $20.98 per hour, or approximately $44,000 annually. This is 25% higher than the median annual income in the neighborhood.
“Investing in our community has always been a priority, and seeing that we had an opportunity to make a change that is both more environmentally sustainable and an economic boon to the West Side made this investment a no-brainer,” said Jeremy Strong, vice president of supply chain. “We’re so proud of all the progress we’ve made so far and are excited to create more jobs and bring more opportunity to the communities we serve.”
This venture also builds on Rush’s long partnership with West Side United, which has helped raise $16.3 million for Fillmore’s development. In particular, the Steans Family Foundation helped bring public and private sources of funding and continues to serve as a stable investment and advisory partner for Fillmore Linen Service.
