How AdventHealth is improving its environmental sustainability

With 55 hospitals in nine states, AdventHealth faces any number of environmental hazards.

Marisa Farabaugh, chief supply chain officer and co-head of environmental sustainability for AdventHealth, talks about the health system's efforts to use more renewable energy at the HIMSS Conference in March.

“We are not immune to natural disasters,” said Marisa Farabaugh, chief supply chain officer and co-head of environmental sustainability for AdventHealth.

“It impacts our teams and the communities that we serve,” she said.

AdventHealth’s locations in North Carolina were affected by the massive flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Helene. The health system was in the midst of completing the acquisition of a small hospital, now called AdventHealth Polk, in the days after the catastrophic flooding.

The system maintains a heavy presence in Florida, where preparation for hurricanes and tropical storms is a fact of life. AdventHealth’s facilities in Colorado face risks from wildfires.

Given those varied threats, AdventHealth has focused on improving its environmental sustainability. During a presentation at the HIMSS 2025 Global Health Conference & Exhibition last month, Farabaugh outlined some of those efforts in shifting to more renewable energy.

Those sustainability efforts fit squarely within the faith-based health system’s mission, Farabaugh said.

“It is really exciting for our organization,” she said. “It goes with the mission of the organization around our intent and desire to make sure that we're stewards of the resources that we’re given.”

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AdventHealth is on track to have 100% renewable energy by 2030, Farabaugh said.

The health system has established virtual purchase power agreements with a wind farm and a solar farm, both in Texas. AdventHealth says the two projects are expected to generate over 1 million megawatt-hours of renewable electricity annually, which is equivalent to the annual electricity consumption of 130,000 homes.

AdventHealth is basically committed to purchasing electricity that is coming out of the wind and solar farm at a fixed price. The health system sells that energy on the market, and over the course of the long-term agreements, AdventHealth expects to see returns on its investment.

“A lot of times people have this thinking that investing in green energy, or all of the work that we're doing in this space is just capital intensive and there's no return,” Farabaugh said. “But actually there can be a return on these types of investments, a significant return.”

AdventHealth has also installed more than 7,500 solar panels at its corporate campus in Orlando. The health system says the solar panels should supply about 30% of the campus’ electrical needs. The solar panels also help offset the high amount of electricity produced by the data center on the campus.

Employees have thrown themselves into sustainability efforts, and staff are relishing the early success of the work. Farabaugh said it “has really become a passion point for many of our team members in our organization as well, who are excited to work for an organization that stands for and does this type of work.”

AdventHealth has set up sustainability councils to advance these efforts. The health system has asked each of its 55 hospitals to put together their own environmental sustainability plans.

The system is giving hospitals the flexibility in choosing the areas they want to address. Some could choose to invest in solar panels or they could choose to use less toxic anesthetic gas production.

“We know our communities and our market leaders, they all have different places they want to lean into,” Farabaugh said, adding, “Letting them begin to select what is authentic to their location and their communities is the key here.”

The health system has been encouraged by the progress and the enthusiasm of employees for the environmental efforts.

“Team members are very excited about this work,” Farabaugh said.

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