Environmental Sustainability You are here:HomeAbout UsOur Environment St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne (SVHM) is committed to creating a health service that delivers quality healthcare with sustainable practices. The health and wellbeing of our community depends, in part, on the health of our environment. Our health service has a mission to serve the most vulnerable, who are disproportionately impacted by the impacts of climate change. SVHM has a responsibility to reduce our contribution to climate change and environmental harm and use our resources wisely. Our renewed Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2023–2024 has five focus areas: Organisational culture and leadership Energy efficiency and emissions Waste management Procurement, transport and travel Building and infrastructure An accompanying Action Plan sets out specific actions SVHM will undertake within each of these focus areas. Information about our environmental performance and some initiatives underway to reduce these impacts are included in our SVHM Annual Report 2022 - 2023. Recent sustainability highlights Solar panels have been installed at: St George's Hospital (138K) In-patient services building (100KW) Auburn House (30KW) Desflurane, an anaesthetic gas with a disproportionately high carbon footprint compared to other anaesthetic gases, is no longer used at SVHM. Sustainability committees in several departments have implemented multiple waste reduction initiatives including auditing and removing unused items in procedure packs, recycling metals, sterilisation wraps, and PVC.