Bloomington, Ind. — For the third year in a row, Cook Medical has received a Greenovation award from Kimberly-Clark’s RightCycle Program. The award is for Cook’s continued sustainability leadership and participation in a landfill diversion program for nitrile gloves.
Cook team members and representatives from Kimberly-Clark pose for the award ceremony.
The award is part of Kimberly-Clark’s RightCycle™ program. The program focuses on recycling difficult personal protective equipment (PPE), such as garments, gloves, hoods, boot covers, masks and safety eyewear. This award recognizes customers that illustrate sustainability leadership and proactively reduce their environmental impact. Since its inception in 2011, The RightCycle™ Program has helped over 1,000 customers divert more 4.5 million pounds of PPE waste.
Cook received this award for recycling nitrile gloves, which employees wear as they manufacture medical devices to protect their hands and keep products clean. This recycling program gave the nitrile gloves a second life by remaking them into patio chairs. Through this program, Cook diverted 6,975 pounds of PPE waste from landfills in 2022, 6,841 pounds in 2021 and 7,430 pounds in 2020.
“Nitrile gloves are notoriously difficult to recycle. That’s why the RightCycle program has been so valuable,” said Drew Northern, vice president and chief ethics and compliance officer at Cook Group. “We are honored to receive the Greenovation award again. We are looking forward to our continued work with Kimberly-Clark as part of Cook’s mission to care for the planet and the communities we live in.”
The recycling program is one of many sustainability efforts at Cook. Multiple Cook facilities are certified to the ISO 14001 Environmental Management standard. Additionally, some facilities are certified to both ISO 14001 and ISO 50001 Energy Management standards. In Bloomington, Indiana, and Brisbane, Australia, the facility roofs are covered in solar panels that offset a total of roughly 1,300 metric tons of carbon per year. Cook’s European headquarters in Limerick, Ireland, has a five-year biodiversity plan that includes a perennial wildflower meadow of native plants, a beekeeping program and two “insect hotels,” among other initiatives.
“Cook Medical has demonstrated sustainability leadership through this and other initiatives to reduce their environmental impact,” said Ashley Davis, Global Sustainability Manager, Kimberly-Clark Professional. “We congratulate them on their accomplishments.”
To learn more about Cook’s sustainability commitments, visit https://csr.cookmedical.com/.
About the Greenovation Awards
The Greenovation Awards were established by Kimberly-Clark Professional in 2013 to honor the waste diversion efforts of their customers. Each year, Kimberly-Clark Professional recognizes companies for their leadership in sustainability and commitment to reducing their environmental impact.
About Kimberly-Clark Professional
Kimberly-Clark Professional partners with businesses to create Exceptional Workplaces, helping to make them healthier, safer and more productive. Key brands in this segment include: Kleenex, Scott, WypAll, Kimtech and KleenGuard. Kimberly-Clark Professional, located in Roswell, Georgia, is one of three Kimberly-Clark business sectors. To see how Kimberly-Clark Professional is helping people around the world to work better, please visit www.kcprofessional.com.
About Cook Medical
Since 1963, Cook Medical has worked closely with physicians to develop technologies that eliminate the need for open surgery. Today we invent, manufacture and deliver a unique portfolio of medical devices to the healthcare systems of the world. Serving patients is a privilege, and we demand the highest standards of quality, ethics and service. We have remained family owned so that we have the freedom to focus on what we care about: patients, our employees and our communities.
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