PHOTO COURTESY OF KAISER PERMANENTE
Permeable pavement in the parking area allows rainwater to filter into the ground at Modesto Medical Center in California. Solar panels generate enough electricity to power up to 20 homes.
New Ways to Build
The most visible sign of American hospitals’ commitment to environmental responsibility is evident in construction. About 81% of hospital building projects last year included environmentally friendly materials, according to a survey by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering. That’s up from 55% in 2006.
Kaiser Permanente, an integrated managed-care organization that operates 37 medical centers in nine Western states, is among the industry leaders in green construction. Its Modesto (Calif.) Medical Center, which opened in October 2008, has received national recognition as one of the greenest healthcare facilities in North America. How green? Permeable pavement in the parking area allows rainwater to filter into the ground, and solar panels generate enough electricity to power up to 20 homes. Building materials were selected with an eye toward patient and employee health. Kaiser worked with a carpet manufacturer to create a product free of potentially harmful polyvinyl chloride. It installed cabinetry made from medium-density fiberboard that did not contain formaldehyde, and it chose paints low in volatile organic compounds.
“People would walk into the hospital and say, ‘This place doesn’t smell new,’ ” says project director Jeffrey Deane. “That’s because people are used to smelling new carpet and new paint, because those materials are outgassing huge quantities of nauseous gases.”
Deane acknowledges it is difficult to create a truly green hospital, given the presence of chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and the way the facility must be cleaned to fight infectious bacteria. But the effort to make the environment within the building less harmful didn’t break the bank. The paint and essentially toxin-free fabrics cost the same or less than traditional materials, and a two-duct air system—which draws air solely from the outside, eliminating recirculation—is easier to maintain and costs less to operate.
“One of the biggest hurdles is getting people past the idea that it’s going to cost too much money,” Deane says. “We have a tendency to value-engineer things because they are cheaper up front. Even in cases when they aren’t, there are ramifications down the road that are pretty significant. For every dollar you spend upgrading your system to be more efficient and environmentally friendly, you’ll get paid back several times over.”
Energy Efficiency
Although new construction provides a clean slate for hospitals to go green, administrations at existing facilities have identified several ways to lessen their environmental footprint. One of the quickest—and most cost-effective—is to improve energy efficiency.
Hospitals are the second-most energy-intensive type of structure in the U.S. behind food service, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.1 That consumption costs inpatient healthcare facilities about $5.3 billion annually—about 3% of the average hospital’s operating budget—and results in about 30 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per square foot, more than double the emissions of standard commercial office buildings, the department estimates.
Energy savings provide an immediate boost to the bottom line, says Clark Reed, director of the Healthcare Facilities Division at the EPA’s Energy Star program. Based on average profit margins, every dollar a nonprofit hospital saves on its energy costs is equivalent to generating $20 in new revenue, Reed says.
“Because of the dollars involved, energy management is getting C-suite attention,” says Nick DeDominicis of Arlington, Va.-based Practice Greenhealth, a networking organization for healthcare institutions that have committed to eco-friendly practices. “We see an increasing number of hospitals thinking about developing strategic master energy plans, looking at facility management in much the same way they’d look at asset management at the boardroom level.”