The new Sherman Hospital is heated and cooled by an on-site geothermal lake. Not only does it save money, but it’s much safer for the environment as well. The lake is a great start, but there is always more work to be done when going green. The next step came from many of you, when you asked if we could incorporate a Recycling Program at Sherman Health.

You Spoke, We Listened!

Based on your feedback, we are proud to announce that a Recycling Program was recently developed at Sherman. In June, we recycled over 9 TONS (18,000 pounds) of material and saved:

• 152 Trees
• 62,440 Gallons of Water
• 33 yards of Landfill Space
• 39,528 kW of Electricity
• 4,130 Gallons of Oil
• 214 Gallons of Gasoline

And here are 11 of the ways we are obtaining these amazing recycling results:

1. Energy efficient lighting
2. Low-flow toilets, faucets, shower heat, etc.
3. Continuous hot water heaters (no storage tank)
4. About 2 tons per week of cardboard recycled. We also recycle glass, plastic and metal/aluminum from the kitchen and will soon provide recycling receptacles for other areas.
5. All confidential paper work is shredded and recycled.
6. Recycle lamps (light bulbs), batteries and oil
7. Kitchen fryer grease is made into bio -diesel
8. The lawn irrigation system draws water from the lake so no “city” water is used.
9. Run off from roof drains and condensate from heat pumps goes to the lake and not the city sewer.
10. The air handlers are equipped with an “energy wheel” which captures some of the building temperature as the exhaust air leaves the building. It pulls some of the temperature out of the air and then feeds that temperature back into the building as the outside air passes through the wheel.
11. Daniels Sharpsmart system used for our sharps (reusable containers to reduce disposal)

Thank you to our Environmental Services team for their efforts in this initiative. Also, thanks to Materials Management, Central Supply, Food & Nutrition, Lab, Pharmacy and SPD for making this possible!