Pharmacies have always been concerned with preserving the health of the customer. Now some are joining the movement to help the environment as well.

As they go green, pharmacies are finding that an eco-friendly approach also can be good for the bottom line.

Leesburg Pharmacy, Leesburg, Virginia

Leesburg Pharmacy recycles stock bottles and patients' prescription vials. But its biggest effort is a take-back program that accepts unused and expired medications. The pharmacy contracts with Guaranteed Returns, a company that incinerates the medications in a waste-to-energy facility where emissions from the burn are used to generate power.

That was important for her pharmacy, Garvin said. Other companies she contacted just put the bottles into a landfill.

"If I was going to offer a program to the public, I wanted to make sure it was green and not just sort of green," she said. "I tried another returns company who did incinerate, but the emissions just went into the atmosphere. Not sure what happens there — Prozac rain in a few years?" she said, adding, "We all have an obligation to do what we can to protect the world we live in."

Garvin, who is raising two boys in Leesburg, said she wanted to do whatever she could to keep the expired/unused drugs out of their water supply and out of medicine cabinets where they could be misused. "I think everyone has a duty to do what they can to leave this earth a little better than they found it," she said. "Recycling is easy. Just do it."

Good Day Pharmacies, Colorado

Other pharmacies are trying new ideas and combinations of programs to see what works best and is the right fit in their communities.

Good Day Pharmacy, a chain of 11 stores in Colorado, a few years ago started a recycling program for drug bottles, paper, plastic, glass, and aluminum cans. It also has a return program for disposal of unused and expired medications.

Most staff members want to recycle, said Vicki Einhellig, RPh, COO, and Karen Price, director of marketing. While recycling is more work for employees, the cost is low and the process takes little time. Prescription numbers have been increasing at most Good Day stores. Although the company can't attribute it directly to the disposal program, the timing is right.

"We have had excellent feedback from our program," Einhellig said. "Our communities definitely recognize the effort of our staff and the need for this type of service. Overall, the program has been very positive. Now we are focusing our efforts on making the process more efficient and on marketing Good Day to each person participating in our program."

The pharmacy staffers hope to take the effort even further. They are considering the adoption of reusable bags for customer purchases and are looking for other ways to stay eco-friendly.

Ladd Family Pharmacy, Boise, Idaho

The Ladd Family Pharmacy in Boise, Idaho, also has found its own green path to becoming more environmentally friendly.

Elaine Ladd, PharmD, BCPS, owner of the Family Pharmacy, wanted her store to incorporate green elements wherever feasible. In 2008, before she opened the pharmacy, she made several key changes to the building, which she owned.

Among those changes was replacement of the existing lights with more efficient ones that use a third as much energy. To reward the efficiency effort, Idaho Power Co. reimbursed the pharmacy for half the installation costs.

She also replaced the floors. The new ones were made from biodegradable or recycled materials. And she had the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system rewired so that all three furnaces would not be burning at the same time, Ladd said.

All told, the pharmacy paid about $22,000 for the lighting, $30,000 for the flooring and related installation expenses, and $750 to rewire the HVAC.

The improvements took about a month to complete. Lighting costs have decreased by approximately one-third per month, she said. And the HVAC improvements have saved approximately 10 percent on the store's monthly heating bills.

The improvements have done even more to make the pharmacy a solid part of the community.

"Boise is a very eco-friendly community," Ladd said. "It was the right thing to do from that standpoint, and it was cost-effective, allowing us to do our part for the community and environment. It also really fit well as part of our differentiation strategy from chain pharmacies.

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