Determinants of eco-friendly practices in level five private hospitals in Nairobi, Kenya

Abstract

The economic and population growth experienced worl dwide over the last half a century have threatened the health of the planet through su ch action as climate change, ozone depletion, depletion of forest cover, extensive use of biodiversity and natural habitats. At present, many aspects of natural environment can be identified that are impacted by the rendering of services and the production of goods. An increasing number of companies are constantly under pressure to develop environmen tally responsible and friendly operations, and regard commitment to the natural en vironment as an important variable within the current competitive scenarios. They are attentive to the concept of enhancing their competitiveness through improvements in the e nvironmental performance, addressing the environmental concerns of their cust omers, and mitigating the environmental effect of their production and servic e activities. The study sought to establish the determinants of eco-friendly practice s in level five private hospitals in Nairobi, Kenya. The research design adopted was cro ss sectional survey design. The population of the study comprised of all the 16 lev el five private hospitals operating in Nairobi. The study used primary data which was coll ected using self-administered questionnaires. The collected data was analyzed usi ng statistical package for social sciences and presented in tables and charts. The st udy found out that the level five hospitals have adopted eco-friendly practices that include water, green purchasing, environmental management systems, transportation, w aste management, food and use of alternative source of energy. The adoption of the p ractices was found to be determined by the level of competition in the sector, government policy requirements, stakeholder pressures, eco-friendly conscious consumers, hospit al size, greenness at the organizational level and compatibility.