Step 2: Commit

In this step the goal is to meet with the executive team, get buy-in for a strategic approach to energy management, and gain approval to spend additional time and money to develop a SEMP. Through this process you can gain an executive SEMP champion, making plan approval in Step 4 much easier.

It's very helpful before you meet with executives to get support for the SEMP from other key hospital staff such as the financial director, operations and maintenance staff, environment of care committee, purchasing director, medical and nursing staff, construction managers, etc. Talk about how the SEMP will benefit them and how they can help. Some clear allies will emerge from the process. You can then tell executives that there is already organizational interest and support for the SEMP.

Tool:  Think Like Your Hospital Executives (pdf) has tips and strategies from other facility directors on getting executives' attention and asking concisely and convincingly for what you want.

Tip: In Step 1 you identified your hospitals mission critical goals and what they mean in a tangible sense. In Step 2 your most powerful approach will be to show how energy management specifically supports these goals.

Tip: Staffing and Funding Needs for SEMP, a tool introduced in Step 3 describes costs of SEMP.