4 Ways to Improve Sustainability in the Medical Field

Julie Starr • March 5, 2022



Oftentimes, sustainability is discussed in the context of for-profit businesses and personal initiatives. One area in which it is often overlooked is healthcare. The medical field, whether concerned with provider-to-patient interactions or scientific research behind the scenes, is sometimes viewed as exempt from this conversation.

The required use of water, electricity, chemical disinfectants, and single-use plastics to ensure patient comfort and sanitization may make sustainability seem like it’s out of the question. The truth of the matter is that keeping science eco-friendly is just as important as keeping other business operations eco-friendly. 

While a complete overhaul of the system may not be possible yet, there are still a few ways that sustainability in the medical field can be improved today. 

Use renewable energy sources

Just like other infrastructure, hospital buildings, clinics, and research centers can upgrade their energy system to include efficient and renewable energy sources. A medical fridge can be powered by electricity generated through solar and wind energy and rooms can be kept warm by improving seals around windows and doors. 

Reduce transportation distances

By partnering with local external stakeholders, healthcare facilities can reduce their environmental impact significantly. Partner with a waste disposal company that is close by, and work with suppliers who aren’t located overseas. 

Using vehicles partially powered by biodiesel is also a great option, as is setting up incentives for staff to commute using transit systems and carpooling. 

Decrease water usage

Water is essential for protecting the health of patients and staff. However, water consumption can still be reduced in healthcare settings without compromising on health. Upgrading water heating systems to ensure that water comes out of the tap hot and doesn’t need to be needlessly run first makes a massive impact. 

Conducting a thorough investigation of equipment to fix leaks is also an important first step. To take this further, healthcare institutions can also harvest their own rainwater for activities like mopping floors and wiping counters. 

Reduce packaging waste

Single-use plastics are a huge problem in hospitals. From individually-wrapped medical supplies (such as needles), masks, and disposable patient dinnerware and cutlery, hospitals generate a significant amount of waste. 

The good news is that there are eco-friendly suppliers out there. Though it may cost more, hospitals should invest in providers who use compostable materials, tools that can be sterilized and reused, and products that come in less packaging. 

Promote a culture of sustainability

To successfully integrate sustainable practices in any business or association, every person involved must be on the same page. It’s not enough to try to improve sustainability behind the scenes; staff at all levels should be aware that this is a corporate goal and value. 

A specific department dedicated to sustainability and green initiatives will help the facility stay up to date on the newest technologies, as well as the environmental and financial benefits of implementing these technologies. 

Staff should also be trained on sustainable practices to ensure that they’re conscious of and confident in eco-friendly procedures. Creating opportunities with front-line staff to discuss what is and isn’t working will also allow you to get the feedback you wouldn’t otherwise have and make changes accordingly. 

How Student-Led ‘Energy Audits’ Are Cutting School Costs (and Lighting the Way Forward)

By Julie Starr • July 14, 2025
What happens when students stop waiting for adults to fix things and start conducting their own energy audits? Money gets saved. The lights get switched off. Data gets analyzed. And a quiet revolution in sustainability begins—inside schools that once overlooked their own inefficiencies. Across the globe, student-led energy audits are proving that change doesn't always need to come from a policy shift or a major capital budget. Sometimes, it begins with a clipboard, a spreadsheet, and a group of curious minds asking: Why are the hallway lights on at noon when sunlight floods the building? The Energy Detectives These audits aren’t science fair projects. They’re rigorous investigations, often done in collaboration with facilities staff, local environmental nonprofits, or even engineering mentors. Students go from classroom to classroom measuring electricity usage, checking for phantom loads , and identifying where heat is escaping in winter or air conditioning is leaking in summer. One high school in Ontario saved over $12,000 a year after its Grade 11 physics students ran an energy audit and suggested simple changes—LED upgrades, motion sensors in bathrooms, and smarter heating schedules. They didn’t just propose ideas. They pitched them with spreadsheets, thermal images, and payback timelines. It worked. Learning That Pays Off—Literally Unlike textbook learning, these audits blend real-world math, environmental science, economics, and persuasive communication. Students aren’t just learning about sustainability. They’re doing it. And the savings add up. From dimming overlit hallways to reprogramming HVAC systems that run all weekend for empty buildings, students are surfacing blind spots that administrators often overlook. In some districts, their findings are influencing energy policy. Elsewhere, the audits have inspired school boards to hire sustainability coordinators—often alumni of the student programs themselves. There’s something poetic about a school funding new books or laptops from money saved by students who found out the vending machines didn’t need to be plugged in 24/7. Why This Matters More Than Ever With education budgets tightening and utility costs rising, every dollar saved is a dollar that can go back into classrooms. And here’s where it gets interesting from a family finance perspective, too. If you’re a parent setting aside money for post-secondary savings, every bit of school efficiency helps. Fewer energy costs might mean more programming, better STEM facilities, or even bursaries. That raises a broader point: when families save for their children’s future, they often look into RESPs (Registered Education Savings Plans). And many wonder—is a RESP deduction available on my taxes? While contributions themselves aren’t deductible, the gains grow tax-free, and students often pay little to no tax when they withdraw the funds during school. A Movement Worth Replicating These audits aren’t just an exercise in environmentalism. They’re leadership labs. Students learn how to spot inefficiencies, speak up in board meetings, and make a business case for change. They don’t just flip switches—they shift mindsets. And they carry these habits into adulthood. The result? A generation growing up not only with climate anxiety, but also with tools to tackle it.

Smart Sensors, Smarter Supply Chains: Enhancing Traceability in Food & Beverage

By Julie Starr • June 20, 2025
In today’s competitive food and beverage (F&B) landscape, traceability is no longer a compliance checkbox—it’s a differentiator. The ability to track every step of a product’s journey, from origin to shelf, is vital for regulatory accuracy and to ensure brand integrity, supply chain agility, and consumer trust. Add smart sensors to the mix: the quiet, tireless observers revolutionizing supply chain intelligence. Traceability Has a Data Problem Despite digitization across many F&B operations, most traceability systems still rely on fragmented or manual data inputs. Batch numbers, barcodes, and handwritten logs often stand between a supplier and clarity when things go wrong. This approach struggles with latency and scale. When contamination or delays occur, root cause analysis is slow, costly, and damaging. Smart sensors shift this paradigm by embedding real-time, contextual intelligence into every stage of the supply chain . Whether monitoring humidity in transit or recording fill-level precision in bottling plants, they remove the guesswork by turning physical conditions into structured, time-stamped data. From Passive Monitoring to Active Optimization Sensors used to be reactive tools, alerting operators to anomalies. But smart sensors now play a proactive role in process control. They measure, and they interpret. For example, temperature sensors embedded in cold chain logistics can dynamically adjust cooling systems or flag threshold breaches before spoilage occurs. These advancements reduce waste and loss at a systemic level. In a production facility, smart sensors integrated with PLCs can enforce recipe compliance, verify clean-in-place processes, and detect micro-stoppages in real-time. This enables operations to pivot faster and isolate inefficiencies before they cascade downstream. Trust is Built on Transparency Consumers are paying more attention to what they eat and drink. They’re looking beyond labels, expecting visibility into how ingredients are sourced, processed, and handled. Smart sensors make this level of transparency achievable —without burdening manufacturers with excessive manual oversight. By capturing metadata throughout production and distribution, these sensors create a digital footprint that’s tamper-resistant and instantly accessible. When this data is integrated with a central platform, brands can respond confidently to audits, recalls, and quality assurance challenges with a level of precision that would be impossible through legacy systems. Intelligence Without Infrastructure Overhaul One common misconception is that adding smart sensors requires a top-down reinvention of supply chain infrastructure. In reality, companies can deploy edge sensors in a modular, scalable way. Many modern solutions offer plug-and-play functionality, allowing for fast integration with existing machinery and MES systems. This is where suppliers like alps-machine.com are reshaping expectations. Rather than pushing proprietary ecosystems, they design sensor-ready equipment with interoperability in mind. This future-proofs investment and keeps businesses nimble in the face of regulatory or market shifts. Designing for Data Longevity Sensors are only as powerful as the context they capture. A smart implementation ensures the data collected can be standardized, stored securely, and accessed meaningfully across departments. This means moving beyond local dashboards toward centralized, queryable datasets that inform everything from supplier contracts to marketing claims. As AI and predictive analytics become more accessible, these data-rich environments will unlock new capabilities—such as predicting demand spikes based on real-time freshness indicators or adjusting production schedules dynamically based on in-transit sensor feedback. Final Thoughts: Smarter Isn’t Optional Traceability isn’t solved by more paperwork—it’s solved by embedded intelligence. Smart sensors don’t just help businesses know what happened; they help prevent the wrong things from happening at all. For companies in the food and beverage sector, adopting smart sensors is less about chasing innovation and more about enabling resilience, speed, and confidence in every decision.