When Boston Children’s Hospital sent a sustainability survey to staff and patient families, the response was clear: Climate change is on people’s minds, and they want to be part of the solution.
More than 600 employees responded, with 93% saying the hospital should be actively working to reduce its environmental impact. Another 76% said climate change is affecting patients and families now.
Hundreds added comments about how sustainability concerns impact their work and sense of purpose as well as suggestions for improvements.
“We weren’t sure how much sustainability efforts would feel like one more thing on people’s plate versus an opportunity to fill an unmet need,” said Kate Lewandowski, director of sustainability. “But the poll showed overwhelming concern and recognition of the climate’s impact on health and of health care’s impact on the environment.”
The survey launched in 2024 in an email from the chief administrative officer, followed by reminders in the CEO’s employee newsletter and a QR code on the internal homepage. It was offered to all staff in English and Spanish.
“We have people from research to nursing telling us all the time that they’re upset about how much trash they generate,” Lewandowski said. “Since staff retention is a priority, this is a way we can be meeting an operational imperative while also helping people feel good about working here — and about the future.”
The survey immediately sparked action. It led to the creation of an employee-led environmental sustainability group with colleagues from across the hospital and satellite locations. The group, which has grown to more than 300 members, organizes events including engineering-led tours of energy efficiency projects and Q&A opportunities with state policymakers.
The visibility the survey brought also resulted in staff proactively reaching out to Lewandowski with ideas.
“It’s been wonderful to tap into existing pockets of enthusiasm and scale things,” she said.
Survey results were shared with hospital leadership and the board, helping build buy-in and integrate sustainability into enterprise goals.
“It was a great tool to deepen leadership engagement,” Lewandowski said. “Our goal is to make sustainability like safety — part of everybody’s job and part of everyday decision-making.”
That requires making environmental choices easy and accessible.
“Our goal is to get resources in place to enable sustainable action without putting a burden on staff,” she said. “We want to point staff toward environmentally preferable products instead of imposing research and decision-making on them. Staff burnout is always a concern, and anything we can do to make things easier for them is a priority.”
The survey results were shared with employees at an Earth Day event, where staff discussed their current sustainability work and ideas.
The hospital also sent a sustainability survey to patient family members and received more than 120 responses. Ninety of them said Boston Children’s should be looking for ways to reduce emissions and addressing how the climate crisis affects caring for kids.
“We were curious about families’ appetite and tolerance for us making sustainability a more visible part of the patient experience,” Lewandowski said. “It was wonderful and affirming to see that the people we care about the most are also thinking about this.”
The long-term goal? Integrate sustainability into broader evaluations of employee engagement and make it a core part of Boston Children’s culture.
“This is important to our people,” Kate said. “It’s helping drive our work and helping our people feel better about the work they do.”
Learn more: Watch the Children’s Hospital Association’s webinar, "Building an Effective Environmental Sustainability Program," to hear how Boston Children’s sustainability team gained support from C-suite leaders to champion the work across the organization, connected environmental health efforts to the hospital’s mission, and engaged employees in planning and prioritizing initiatives.
