The U.S. health care sector accounts for 8 percent of the national carbon footprint — the medical industry hasn’t exactly had a reputation for environmentally sustainable practices. Now, though, health care workers are cleaning up their act.

Recent advances in the sector, aimed at reducing energy use and waste, have helped steer medicine in a more earth-friendly direction, says Jane Weldon, who teaches health care administrationcourses at the University of Phoenix Madison Campus. Here are a few of the latest green innovations coming to a health care facility near you: http://www.phoenix.edu/forward/perspectives/2012/07/5-ways-health-care-is-healing-the-planet.html