No.10 | Sep-Dec 2007
- Features
- Hospitals should be phasing out harmful chemicals to protect newborns
- Four reasons for thinking: fresh, local, organic.
- News
- Groundbreaking procurement guidelines now available in English
- News in Brief
- HCWH Europe wins mercury device review
- Fire-retardant survey finds supplier information unreliable
- Case Studies
- Testing local and organic food supply in London
- Six ideas for staff buy-in on environment programs
Interesting Resources
Six ideas for staff buy-in on environment programs
Austrian hospital SMZ Floridsdorf used classic communications tactics – such as Floskar, their environmental alternative to the Oscar - to save EUR 20,000 and ensure staff buy-in for new environmental measures.
A key challenge facing any team whose task it is to rejuvenate or install environmental programs is getting staff buy-in. Without it, the changes in day-to-day practices on which success depends won’t happen.
The SMZ Floridsdorf taskforce found that, although staff were keen on the idea of improving the environmental profile of the hospital wards, they would need more information and encouragement if they were to make changes to their working habits.
This was unsurprising: experience elsewhere has invariably shown that hospital staff need to be taught which practices are better for the environment and that tangible incentives massively increase the chances of success of any program.
The key to Floridsdorf’s success was in recognising that it the goals and data of the environment team can easily be used as criteria for comparing ward performance. Once you have comparisons, you can have a competition: Floskar was born.
Floskar is awarded annually at a celebration dinner. Even before Floskar had first been awarded in 2005, he had already helped reduced waste management costs by EUR 19,700.
The SMZ Floridsdorf taskforce found that, although staff were keen on the idea of improving the environmental profile of the hospital wards, they would need more information and encouragement if they were to make changes to their working habits.
This was unsurprising: experience elsewhere has invariably shown that hospital staff need to be taught which practices are better for the environment and that tangible incentives massively increase the chances of success of any program.
The birth of Floskar
The environment team prioritised improving waste segregation at Floridsdorf, also identifying water and energy consumption and overall waste production as other areas needing urgent improvement.The key to Floridsdorf’s success was in recognising that it the goals and data of the environment team can easily be used as criteria for comparing ward performance. Once you have comparisons, you can have a competition: Floskar was born.
Floskar is awarded annually at a celebration dinner. Even before Floskar had first been awarded in 2005, he had already helped reduced waste management costs by EUR 19,700.
Keys to success of the initiative
- Using existing meetings (such as conferences between physicians) to report on project status
- Giving the a logo and slogan, to help staff identify it as an activity rather than another set of abstract instructions
- Top management issuing a public declaration of support for the work
- Using notice boards to publicise latest information about the project
- Publishing an article about the health value of mountain spring water in the internal hospital magazine
- Making sure that the waste evaluation team is on-hand during evaluations to answer questions, and that every ward and work-area has a point-person able to respond to environment questions.
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