Promoting Green Healthcare for a Sustainable Future
The 5th Green Hospitals Asian Conference, which was held at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), saw medical professionals from 23 countries and regions coming together to share and exchange knowledge on various topics. Taiwan’s Dalin Tzu Chi General Hospital’s Vice Superintendent, Dr Lin Ming-Nan, and volunteers from Tzu Chi Singapore’s Mission of Environmental Protection were among those invited to share at the event. On behalf of Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital, Dr Lin signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Khoo Teck Puat Hospital to collaborate on promoting community health and ensuring sustainability amid climate change.
The theme for this year’s conference is “Towards a Sustainable Climate-Resilient Asian Healthcare”.
The 5th Green Hospitals Asian Conference, which was held at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, saw medical professionals from 23 countries and regions coming together to share and exchange knowledge on energy conservation, waste management, etc. to explore the topic of sustainability.
Participant, Sharon Woo: If healthcare, where I am right now, is a country, the CO2 emitted by the healthcare industry is actually the fifth highest in the world. This is alarming to me. We have to do our best to reduce carbon footprint.
Dr Lin Ming-Nan, Dalin Tzu Chi Hosp.’s Vice Supt.: If you eat much more meat than vegetables, (the risk of developing end-stage renal disease will be high).
Dalin Tzu Chi Hospital was a representative at five annual Green Hospitals Asian Conference. Dr Lin used various statistics and examples to explain how vegetarianism benefits health and the environment. The meals and snacks provided at the 3-day conference were all-vegetarian, too.
CEO of Khoo Teck Puat Hosp. Chew Kwee Tiang: Many of my colleagues had gone to Tzu Chi at Dalin, and they learned about vegetarian food there. So after they came back to KTPH, they started planning new dishes for our patients and for our staff as well.
Hailed as “a hospital in a garden”, Khoo Teck Puat Hospital has obtained many awards for its green building design and adopts green energy practices. After signing an MOU with Tzu Chi in 2015, staff from the hospital brought back many green practices from Tzu Chi in Taiwan.
Yen Tan, Dir. of Operations, Khoo Teck Puat Hosp.: Our team brought back the spirit of Tzu Chi. Master Cheng Yen spoke of “purity at the source”, which means that if you don’t use what you don’t need, your heart will be at peace, and you won’t need to recycle.
Dr Lin Ming-Nan, Dalin Tzu Chi Hosp.’s Vice Supt.: As we treat patients, the waste generated by the medical sector has an impact on the environment, which causes health problems for people. So I hope that every hospital will come together to practise environmentalism as this will be healthier for people.
CEO of Khoo Teck Puat Hosp. Chew Kwee Tiang: The next MOU, I hope you will bring our relationship to the next level……
At the 5th Green Hospitals Asian Conference, the two hospitals signed a 5-year MOU to collaborate on promoting and enhancing community health and green hospital practices.
