Overview
Purchased goods make up a significant portion of our environmental footprint and more than half of our Scope 3 emissions. Our purchasing is comprised of six main categories, including patient care supplies, non-clinical/administrative, pharmaceuticals, construction and facility maintenance, IT systems and clinical equipment. To enhance pricing, availability, support, quality and consistency, we centralized procurement across the enterprise under our Supply Chain & Support Services (SCSS) team. This group of caregivers works to continuously improve product and service delivery to support exceptional care delivery and daily operations. SCSS oversees nearly 8,700 contracts and service agreements across the organization, facilitates the purchase of more than 4.5 billion in goods and services and manages the movement of products across more than 2,200 locations to support our patients, caregivers and communities.
Cleveland Clinic is committed to using our purchasing power to make a positive impact by increasing our spend with suppliers that are local, diverse and committed to decarbonization. Additionally, we promote sustainable practices within our supply chain by integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into our procurement process and engaging with our suppliers. For example, we outline expectations for our vendors related to sustainability in our Supplier Handbook, including:
- Complying with the environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards outlined in the United Nations Global Compact, and assessments of their performance in these areas.
- Supporting our efforts to track and minimize the environmental impacts of our supply chain by providing metrics on climate resilience, energy conservation, green building, healthy/local/sustainable foods, safer chemicals, waste reduction, recycling and water stewardship.
Other efforts include interviewing suppliers as part of our materiality process, incorporating sustainability criteria into requests for proposals and supplier agreements, evaluating products and suppliers for ESG impacts and engaging directly with suppliers, other health systems and Group Purchasing Organizations (GPOs) on sustainability initiatives and data requests.
Green Purchasing
Green purchasing supports our commitment to healthy environments, including the facilities where our patients and caregivers spend time healing and working. Our green purchasing priorities include:
- Eliminating mercury, polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and Di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP).
- Selecting options that are reusable, refillable, recyclable, etc. to reduce waste.
- Procuring items with reputable, third-party certifications for sustainable and healthier attributes.
- Sourcing locally and minimizing the transportation footprint of products and services.
- Reducing packaging waste, hazardous waste and bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs).
In 2022, we met Healthcare Without Harm’s Healthy Interiors Criteria for 99% of our furniture purchases. Additionally, we received an Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) Purchaser Award for our commitment to green purchasing in three product categories.
Healthcare Anchor Network Impact Purchasing Commitment
In 2020, Cleveland Clinic joined the Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN), a national collaboration of leading healthcare systems committed to using their purchasing power to address the economic, racial and environmental resource disparities that impact community health. We also signed HAN’s Impact Purchasing Commitment, which includes goals related to supplier diversity, sustainability and community wealth building.
As part of the commitment, all signatories select at least four of the seven core sustainability goals to complete within five years. In 2021, Cleveland Clinic committed to achieving the following goals by 2025:
- Furniture and Furnishings: eliminate the use of priority chemicals of concern in 30% of annual furnishing and furniture purchases.
- Sustainable Food: 20% of total food purchases must meet sustainable criteria, which includes support for local systems and healthful production practices.
- Anesthetic Gas Reduction: reduce GHG emissions from anesthetic gases by 5% from baseline.
- PVC/DEHP Reduction: eliminate both PVC and DEHP from at least two of eight priority medical product categories.
Caregiver teams across the enterprise worked together to accomplish all four of these goals in 2022. To achieve the Anesthetic Gas Reduction goal, we formed a working group with anesthesiologists to replace anesthetics that have a high carbon footprint with equally effective anesthetics that have a lower carbon footprint, and to reduce anesthetic gas waste. Another cross-functional team collaborated to eliminate PVC and DEHP in gloves and breast pump tubing. Since we achieved our goals in advance of the 2025 completion date, we will continue working on making additional progress beyond our initial commitments.
Sector Leadership
Gartner 2022 Top Healthcare Supply Chain
For the second consecutive year, Cleveland Clinic was recognized as the top healthcare supply chain by Gartner in its 2022 annual Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 list. The Gartner Healthcare Supply Chain Top 25 uses qualitative and quantitative data to identify and celebrate health systems that improve patient care while reducing costs.
In 2022, our Supply Chain & Support Services (SCSS) team was recognized for of the following key initiatives as part of this year’s ranking:
- Work around supply chain resiliency.
- Collaboration with University Hospitals to complete the inaugural DEI Supplier Accelerator Program cohort.
- Expansion of our global footprint with the opening of Cleveland Clinic London.
- 2023 planned initiatives on workforce optimization, enabling demand planning and implementing chat bots to streamline system interfaces.
This is the fifth consecutive year that Cleveland Clinic has been listed in the top three, and the seventh-straight year that Cleveland Clinic has been recognized as a top 10 honoree.
Sharing sustainable practices
Through collaboration and best practice sharing with other healthcare systems, suppliers and our Group Purchasing Organization (GPO), we seek to collectively promote the adoption and acceleration of sustainable practices throughout the healthcare supply chain. Some of the ways we exchange information with peers include attending and presenting/co-presenting at conferences, participation in industry cohorts, benchmarking and direct outreach.
Cleveland Clinic also serves as a member of Vizient’s Environmental Advisory Council. Vizient is the largest GPO in the country, serving more than 50% of US acute care providers. The role of the council, which includes Cleveland Clinic and 14 other health systems, is to advise Vizient on its environmentally preferred purchasing strategy. As part of this strategy, Vizient engages with suppliers to disclose 23 environmental performance metrics at the product level, including chemicals of concern, recyclability, recycled content and packaging. By serving on the council, Cleveland Clinic and peer healthcare organizations can reach a greater number of suppliers to promote sustainable practices and standardize data requests.
Healthy, Local and Sustainable Food
Millions of patients, visitors and caregivers dine at our food service locations each year. We are committed to providing options that promote well-being for people and the planet, and actively work with our food service providers to increasingly source healthy, local and sustainable foods. To this end, we offer freshly prepared foods, including plant-forward options, from local (within 250 miles) and sustainable sources, and highlight healthy and sustainable choices on menus. By sourcing more ingredients locally, we aim to provide fresher foods that are flavorful and nutrient dense. Our local sourcing efforts also support local economies and reduce our environmental footprint. We include local, sustainable and healthy food criteria in our food service contracts, and work with our providers to gather and review product data to measure our progress.
Some of the criteria we use to evaluate ingredients include:
- Health Care Without Harm’s Sustainably-Raised Meat and Poultry guide.
- Practice Greenhealth’s Healthy Beverage and Less Meat, Better Meat criteria.
- Third-party animal welfare certifications, such as Certified Humane and Global Animal Partnership.
- USDA-approved label claims.
In 2022, 41% of the food we purchased for our main campus was local or from farms and producers that use sustainable practices.
Farmers market program
In 2022, we hosted our 14th annual farmers market season to provide fresh, local produce to community members, patients, visitors and caregivers. We hosted markets at Crile Mall on our main campus and at multiple regional hospitals and family health centers. In addition to local food, our main campus farmers market often includes educational resources, wellness programming, live music and giveaways. To promote accessibility, we offer the USDA’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Program coupons and free parking for up to one hour or more depending on the market location.
