Articles & Interviews
Healthcare: A Business & Ethical Case for Sustainability
The U.S. healthcare sector is at a crossroads in resource management. Accounting for nearly a tenth of the country's CO2 emissions and facing rising energy costs, the healthcare industry is embracing energy efficiency as a viable and cost effective path to improve margins and reduce the impacts from their own building operations. Leading healthcare systems now recognize that to provide the highest quality of care, they have a moral and ethical responsibility to contribute to health - inside and outside hospital walls.
The Business Imperative for Sustainability: The Seven Critical Success Factors
Sustainability resource management is no longer an option. It's a business, societal and global imperative. Sustainability is now the touchstone for system-wide innovation. This article identifies seven critical success factors for maximizing sustainable resource management planning, development, implementation and success.
Targeting 100! Envisioning the High Performance Hospital: Implications for a New, Low Energy, High Performance Prototype
This groundbreaking new research effort reveals how hospitals, which account for four percent of all energy consumed in the U.S., can achieve a 60 percent reduction in energy utility use by redesigning the way they use energy. The most salient outcome of this work is the definition of a process that brings together architectural, mechanical and central plant systems to deliver significant efficiencies. Download materials here:
- Targeting 100! Executive Summary
- Targeting 100! full report
- Energy in Healthcare Fact Sheet
- Targeting 100 Infographic
Mike Hatten Shares Advice on Smart Hospital Operations and Energy Savings
Mike Hatten is an expert in sleuthing out energy savings in healthcare facilities. As a result, hospitals throughout the Northwest are saving hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in operating costs thanks to his approach. In this interview, Mike shares advice on achieving superior energy savings through strategic energy management.
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's investment in efficiency delivers over a million dollars in annual electricity savings, and another nearly half million dollars in annual water and natural gas savings. This means more money for cancer research.
Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center
An engineering manager at Boise's St. Alphonsus Regional Medical Center learned to use persuasive financial arguments and irresistible utility incentives to convince administrators that energy management could improve the hospital's bottom line. Operational changes and capital investments are expected to reduce energy consumption by 25% and save the hospital up to $2.5 million over five years.
Eastern Washington Providence Health & Services
Five very different Eastern Washington Providence Health & Services hospitals - ranging from small critical-care facilities to the second-largest hospital in the state - came together to develop a single, system-wide strategic energy management plan that will reduce energy use through O&M practice changes and cost-effective capital improvements, saving up to $200,000 a year.
PeaceHealth Commits to Energy Efficiency through SEMP
Seven PeaceHealth hospitals in Oregon,Washington, and Alaska approached energy management on a hospital-by-hospital basis until a CEO asked them to tackle a systemwide strategic energy management plan. The hospitals anticipate that they can reduce energy use 10% and eventually save $800,000 annually, mostly through equipment tune-ups, turndowns, and turn-offs.
The Top 10 Green Hospitals in the US: 2006
By taking up green practices, whether incrementally or from the ground up, many hospitals are managing to lower energy bills, reduce waste and achieve healthier indoor air.
How Hospital Design Saves Lives
Design changes can cut infection rates, lower physician errors, improve staff performance, and make all the difference in delivering care.
Sacred Heart Receives ENERGY STAR Award
For a second time, Sacred Heart Medical Center has received the Environmental Protection Agency's ENERGY STAR recognition for its low energy use per-square-foot of space.
