Environmental viewfinders program: Empowerment for an environmentally sustainable corporate culture in a teaching hospital

Abstract

To achieve global sustainable development, companies worldwide must contribute by incorporating environmental education within their organizations. To remediate the lack of comprehensive and structured programs, we adopted an environmental education model through the Environmental Viewfinders Program that enabled employees to contribute to a pro-environmental culture and find solutions to reduce negative environmental impacts. The program trainees identified 10 opportunities for environmental improvement in the institution, six of which (60%) were successfully implemented. This study may guide healthcare facilities and other organizations to apply this low-cost and accessible training method to empower their employees in terms of their environmental responsibilities.

Acknowledgments

We thank the Centro de Investigaciones Clinicas of Fundación Valle del Lili in Cali, Colombia for making it possible to share this experience with the scientific community.

Disclosure statement

No potential competing interest was reported by the authors.