EU environment policy and hospitals

The European Union has developed an environment policy and an action programme, currently the 6th Environment Action Programme.

Climate change and energy

European climate change and energy policy pursues the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% until 2020, compared to 1990 levels. This aim shall be reached through the establishment of national emissions ceilings, an increase in the use of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and the widening of the scope of the Integrated Pollution Prevention and Control (IPPC) directive. Both the revision of the ETS and IPPC would mean that many hospitals would be included in the schemes, and thus would have to buy emission allowances on the European market and initiate costly measures to reduce their emissions.

The second aim of energy and climate change policy is to increase the share of renewable resources to 20% by 2020. This goal is pursued by a directive on the use of energy from renewable resources, initiating national action plans and implementing guarantees of origin for electricity from renewable sources.

The third goal is to increase energy efficiency. This is attained through the revision of the directive on energy efficiency of buildings, which leads to the increased use of energy certificates, especially in public buildings, and to national minimum energy efficiency requirements. These measures mean financial and human resources have to be spent in hospitals to do energy audits and increase energy efficiency in case of renovations.

Environment and health and quality of life

The European environment and health strategy pursues the aim of reducing the disease burden of environmental factors by increasing the knowledge base on the relationship between these factors and the occurrence of disease and by increasing EU capacities to intervene in the policy-making on environmental health. The first cycle of the strategy is implemented by the European environment and health action plan 2004-2010, aiming at improving knowledge about environmental hazards to health.

Natural resources and waste

The European directive on waste provides for a waste management that is least harmful to human health. This includes the production, collection, storage and recycling of waste. It introduces the need to guarantee the traceability of waste and the prevention of mixing hazardous waste with non-hazardous waste. On the list of hazardous waste many types of waste found in hospitals are listed, meaning that the directive, after implementation in national laws, directly affects the waste management in hospitals. In addition to the waste Directive, the directive on waste from electric and electronic equipment has been implemented, which aims for lower production of this type of waste and for higher reuse and recycling rates. This is being enhanced through the possibility to return such waste back to the producer free of charge.

Environmental certification schemes

In the EU, three Community-wide certification schemes have been introduced, which certify an improved environmental performance to organisations.

EN ISO 14001

To be awarded the ISO 14001 certificate, organisations set up a voluntary environmental management system, leading to the compliance with legal environmental provisions and to a periodical improvement of the system.

Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS)

The EMAS label is built upon the provisions of the ISO 14001 norm. Thus, an organisation with the ISO label can apply for EMAS if they fulfil some additional requirements, such as an annual improvement of the environmental performance and environmental audits done by certified auditors.

EU Eco-label

The Eco-label of the European Commission is limited to defined product groups, meaning that only producers of these product groups can be awarded the label. Food, feed, medical devices and medicinal products are excluded from the label. For all other product groups, hospitals can buy products from companies who have been awarded the label.

Activities

Hospitals in the 27
EU Member States

Quality of care

Human resources

Public health

Hospital, health care
and internal market

e-Health

Cross-border
co-operation

Green hospitals
Environment policy
Energy performances:
good practices
Networks

Networking