As responsible hospitals and clinics across the country look for ways to reduce their environmental impact, it has made sense to start with the departments that have the largest environmental footprints. The operating room (OR) is one of the largest users of supplies within hospitals and outpatient centers, as well as one of the largest producers of waste. Case studies have demonstrated that between 20-30% of the total waste generated by facilities comes from the OR. A number of leading healthcare institutions like ORA^® Oral Surgery & Implant Studio have begun to tackle this problem by identifying a set of best practices - the Greening the Operating Room Initiative.  Greening the OR is a collaborative effort lead by Practice Greenhealth, and it consists of thought leaders from across the health care sector, including representatives of major hospital systems and individual hospitals, health care professional organizations, and pioneering “green” surgeons.

As an extension of Greening the OR, Practice Greenhealth established the Council for Environmentally Responsible Surgery, which is made up of a growing number of forward-thinking surgeons, such as Dr. Steven Koos, who wish to contribute their innovating efforts and ideas to work on greening ORs throughout the country.