The Thunberg effect

500,000 people young and old joined Greta last Friday to protest our collective apathy to address the climate crisis. One message that Greta repeated was to not just be inspired, but to take action. Her movement is igniting our youth and their enthusiasm is trickling down to us older folk. It’s about time! They call this the Thunberg effect. It’s being felt in my household (home to 2 teenage girls who scrutinize my consumption habits) and in my workplace at Apnée Santé and I’ll tell you that it feels good. Change starts with action and at Apnée Santé we are committed to reducing waste in our operations.

To that end, here are just a few environmentally conscious initiatives that we feel have made an impact in 2019:

30,000 fewer plastic bottles in landfill

Apnée Santé is taking action to protect the environment by distilling water for all CPAP patients. It’s not just about providing free distilled water to our patients.  The main reason we embarked on this project was to prevent the needless consumption of plastic.  Our distillers are working overtime to keep plastic out of the environment! Since we started distilling our own water in July, Apnée Santé has distributed 1300 jugs of distilled water to our customers which we have committed to refill…for free. The average patient will go through 23 x 4L plastic bottles of distilled water per year.  Imagine 1300 x 23! Over 12 months, the efforts of Apnée Santé and our patients will have kept 30,000 plastic water bottles out of landfill! Together we can make a difference. Apnée Santé’s free distilled water saves you and the planet.

Apnée Santé goes paperless in April 2019

Apnée Santé takes action to protect the environment by replacing its paper patient files with electronic medical records (EMR). You might not think it makes much of a difference, but imagine entire offices devoted simply to paper files.  If you visit our clinics, you will see the product of 11 years of paper files. The filing cabinets were encroaching on our workspaces.  All patients files are now digital. The adaptation is not without its challenges given the monumental task of digitizing everything and given that most of us are accustomed to note-taking on paper. Our team is embracing the change and our offices are feeling a lot more spacious!

Apnee Sante goes electric

Another way that Apnée Santé is taking action to protect the environment is by reducing its carbon footprint. As we slowly replace our fleet of 6 cars, we are committed to buying electric cars. This past summer we purchased 2 electric cars for our staff who travel throughout the Greater Montreal area to visit our 6 clinics and to visit our patients in hospital and at home.

We’re loving the e-vehicles!

Conclusion

We still have a long way to go to reduce waste within our clinics.  The important thing is that we are making changes and taking action and we feel that we are part of the solution.

Let’s do our part by keeping plastic out of the environment when we can!  Please come by for your free refill of distilled water. And, if you haven’t already received your free reusable jug, please pop by one of our 6 locations.