Seattle, WA – Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, WA, has announced that it is the first hospital in the Providence Health Care System, and the second hospital in North America, to achieve Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Chain of Custody certification for sustainable, wild-caught seafood. MSC certification ensures that seafood products bearing the blue MSC ecolabel are fully traceable to a fishery that has been certified to the global MSC standard as sustainable and well-managed.
In line with Providence Health & Services’ mission and core values of respect, compassion, justice, excellence and stewardship, patients and guests at Providence St. Peter Hospital now have the option to contribute to the health of the world’s oceans by choosing menu items with the blue MSC ecolabel. More than 1500 meals are served daily at Providence St. Peter Hospital, which include MSC certified pan seared Pacific cod and Thai peanut salad or Caesar salad with Oregon pink shrimp.
MSC Chain of Custody certification assures that in every step of the chain – from the fishers, to the processor, to the distributor and the end user – MSC certified seafood is not mixed with or substituted for non-certified seafood. To achieve certification, Providence St. Peter Hospital worked with MSC Chain of Custody certified foodservice distributor, Food Services of America (FSA), to ensure complete traceability through the supply chain.
Sustainability is essential to core value of stewardship
“We’re proud to offer MSC certified sustainable seafood to patients and guests and provide the choice to support healthy oceans,” said Gerald Roundy, director of Hospitality, Providence Southwest Washington Region. “Sustainability is essential to our core value of stewardship and we continuously strive to lead the way to a healthier future for our people, resources and the earth.”
Providence St. Peter Hospital has been recognized for additional sustainability initiatives including a high recycle rate, increased energy efficiency from recycling boiler heat, and excellent indoor environment standards, resulting in being named the Smartest Building in America by Siemens Industry, Inc. for demonstrating sustainable and efficient facility operations. St. Peter has also reduced water use from 61 million gallons a year down to 28 million gallons a year during the past 15 years.
Leadership contributes to health of the world’s oceans
“We congratulate the demonstrated leadership of Providence St. Peter Hospital as the second hospital in North America to earn MSC Chain of Custody certification,” said Geoff Bolan, MSC’s U.S. Program Director. “By looking for the blue MSC ecolabel and choosing MSC certified seafood, patients, guests and staff are able to reward sustainable fisheries and help to ensure the health of the world’s oceans for this and future generations.”
About the MSC Chain of Custody certification
Initiated by Gerald Roundy, who led the MSC certification of Virginia Mason Hospital with his team in 2014, the MSC Chain of Custody certification of Providence St. Peter Hospital was completed by an independent, third party assessment body, SCS Global Services. For more information on the MSC Chain of Custody certification process, visit www.msc.org/get-certified/supply-chain.
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About Providence St. Peter Hospital
Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, WA, is a 390-bed, not-for-profit hospital with “Magnet®” recognition. The Magnet Recognition Program® recognizes the top health care organizations in the nation for providing nursing excellence. Only two other hospitals in Washington, the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Hospital, have garnered this top honor.
Providence St. Peter Hospital has been named one of the 100 Top Hospitals in the nation for cardiology, orthopedics and stroke care. The outpatient surgery center has received national benchmark awards for its work in cataract surgery, knee arthroscopy and many other procedures.
About the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) is an international non-profit organization set up to help transform the seafood market to a sustainable basis. The MSC runs the only certification and ecolabeling program for wild-capture fisheries consistent with the ISEAL Code of Good Practice for Setting Social and Environmental Standards and the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization Guidelines for the Ecolabeling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture Fisheries. These guidelines are based upon the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishing and require that credible fishery certification and ecolabeling schemes include:
· Objective, third-party fishery assessment utilizing scientific evidence;
· Transparent processes with built-in stakeholder consultation and objection procedures;
· Standards based on the sustainability of target species, ecosystems and management practices.
The MSC has regional or area offices in London, Washington D.C., Tokyo, Sydney, The Hague, Beijing, Berlin, Cape Town, Copenhagen, Halifax, Paris, Madrid, Stockholm, Santiago, Seattle, Moscow, Salvador, Singapore and Reykjavik.
In total, more than 370 fisheries are engaged in the MSC program with 255 certified and 121 under full assessment. Together, fisheries already certified or in full assessment record annual catches of around 11 million metric tons of seafood. This represents around 12 percent of the annual global harvest of wild capture fisheries. Certified fisheries currently land nearly nine million metric tons of seafood annually – this is close to 10 percent of the total harvest from wild capture fisheries. Worldwide, more than 27,000 seafood products, which can be traced back to the certified sustainable fisheries, bear the blue MSC ecolabel.
Source: Marine Stewardship Council (MSC)