Danielle Warner’s Love for Nature Drives Sustainability Efforts at Home and Work

Danielle Warner says that she’s “always been obsessed with nature.”

One example of her obsession is that all four of her children are named after flowers – Lily (10), Violet (9), Rose (4) and Orion (1).

The names for her three daughters came easily, but Warner and her husband, Zack, couldn’t find an appropriate flower name for their first son. Instead, they decided to name him after a constellation. But during their time in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Methodist Women’s Hospital, one of their nurses pointed out that an Orion is actually a type of unique star flower.

Moving to the Country

Warner grew up in Littleton, Colorado. Some of her fondest childhood memories are taking walks with her grandpa and experiencing the calmness of the outdoors.

After living in Bennington for 10 years, the Warner family moved to the country a few miles north of the Omaha metro area near Skinny Bones Pumpkin Patch and the Blair airport.

“In the city, all the hustle and bustle can distract you from nature,” she said. “So we moved out to the country to pass along that love for nature to our kids.”

Not long after their relocation in 2018, the family started growing Christmas trees. They recently planted many different kinds of day lilies on their property. Warner estimates that they have about 15 different varieties of day lilies, but she hopes to have closer to 75 by next year. 

In 2022, the Warners had a greenhouse installed, and next spring an acre of their land will become a pollinator habitat, which will allow for native flowers and grasses to grow.

Providing Customer Service

Warner started at Methodist eight years ago, delivering food and cleaning dishes at Methodist Hospital, She moved into the role of director of food services at Methodist Women’s Hospital in the fall of 2018 before transitioning to her current job as the director of environmental and linen services at Methodist Fremont Health in the spring of 2020.

“It’s family to me,” Warner said.

Throughout her time working for the health system, Warner has enjoyed providing customer service.

“No one wants to be in the hospital, but if you can make it a better experience, it makes all the difference,” she said. “And I love being able to do that.”

In her current position, Warner oversees housekeeping and laundry services that are provided for the hospital, Dunklau Gardens and Methodist Physicians Clinic locations in Fremont. She also handles scheduling of employees, manages the budget and orders supplies. Most importantly, she makes sure that her team understands their roles within the health system.

“I feel like it’s my job to make sure my team understands our mission, vision and values,” she said. “That’s my role: to make sure they feel that same engagement that I do. It’s great that I’m engaged, but they need to be engaged.”

Pushing Sustainability

Warner also helps champion many sustainability efforts.

Because of her efforts at work, she feels that it’s only natural to be sustainable at home – and she’s found several ways to wisely use the resources on her family’s property.

“As I’m pushing the health system to recycle and compost, and bring these initiatives forward, I’ve looked in the mirror and asked, ‘Am I doing that at home?’” she said. “And that’s part of what led to wanting to do the pollinator habitat, because I have this piece of land and I’m not doing anything with it.”

Warner dreams of having a beehive, but she said that having four children at home may curb those plans for a while.

She tries to help her kids find ways to appreciate nature through nightly walks. And she hopes that her efforts at work and at home will set her children up to enjoy the land for many years.

“We’re always outside looking at the flowers and other aspects of nature,” Warner said. “Hopefully they’ll end up enjoying nature and want to do something similar. I mean, they’re stuck with it since they’re named after flowers.”