Boston-area hospitals are adopting changes to encourage healthier eating among patients, visitors and staff and to make their own facilities less damaging to the environment, according to an article on the Boston Globe website. 

Sugary sodas, candy bars, harsh cleaning agents, and disposable surgical tools are being phased out in favor of more local produce, fruit-infused water stations, solar panels and reusable instruments, the article said.

More than 40 hospitals in Massachusetts have joined a healthier hospitals initiative, launched in 2012.

Some area hospitals have implemented more sweeping changes than others. “Each hospital is moving at its own speed, but all are moving in the right direction,” said John Messervy, director of capital and facilities planning for Partners HealthCare, which is a sponsor of the initiative.

Boston Medical Center is reducing red meat consumption among patients, visitors, and staff and organizing weekly farmers markets in the hospital lobby, the article said. Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital implemented a variety of healthier upgrades after moving into a new environmentally friendly building in Charlestown last April. 

Read the article.