This page highlights solutions and resources for healthcare organizations related to this year's Healthcare Sector Priorities, as set by the Better Buildings Alliance Healthcare Sector Steering Committee. Scroll down to view each category. You can learn more about the sector priorities and steering committee here.
Energy Efficiency and Zero Energy Ready Design for Resilience Planning
Kaiser Permanente Pioneers California’s First Medical Center Microgrid
Kaiser Permanente’s Richmond Medical Center was the first hospital in California to implement a microgrid that connects renewable energy and battery storage to a pre-existing, diesel-fueled backup power system in a hospital — as a result, the center stands to save an additional 2.63 MWh of energy per year, resulting in annual savings of $394,000.
Targeting Energy Efficiency with Low-Energy Design and Renewables at Gundersen Health System's Sparta Clinic
Gundersen Health's Sparta Clinic consumes half the energy than the average outpatient medical clinic due to its low-energy design that targets energy efficiency and integration of renewables. As of 2018, the solar photovoltaic panels have produced more energy than the building has consumed establishing the clinic as an energy independent facility.
Kaiser Permanente: Santa Rosa Medical Office Building is a Zero-Energy First
Kaiser Permanente’s 87,300-square-foot Santa Rosa medical office building in California is the first to achieve net-zero status and the first demonstrated net-zero healthcare building in the U.S., with the ability to generate its own energy and using as little power as possible.
Evolution of Microgrid and Battery Storage to Produce Reliable Power More Efficiently
Better Buildings partners Montefiore Medical Center, Welltower, and Kaiser Permanente engaged in a roundtable discussion on the evolution of microgrid and battery storage technology in the healthcare sector at the 2019 CleanMed Conference.
On-Site Commercial Solar PV Decision Guide for the Healthcare Sector
This document provides guidance for implementing Solar PV in hospitals and other healthcare facilities.
Gundersen Health System: Parking Ramp Solar Array in Healthcare
Gundersen Health System constructed one of the nation's first LEED parking structures for a hospital, complete with PV panels. As of 2014, the system is one of the first to offset 100 percent of its energy use with renewable energy.
Technical Support Document: Development of the Advanced Energy Design Guide for Large Hospitals – 50% Energy Savings
This Technical Support Document describes the process and methodology for the development of the Advanced Energy Design Guide for Large Hospitals: Achieving 50% Energy Savings Toward a Net Zero Energy Building (AEDG-LH) ASHRAE et al. (2011b).
Primary Protection: Enhancing Health Care Resilience for a Changing Climate
This guide published by the Dept. of Health and Human Services, is focused on health care facility resilience to climate change impacts and includes an assessment tool to determine facility and infrastructure vulnerabilities as well as solutions.
Customizable Request for Proposal for Infrastructure Risk Assessments
With Partners HealthCare’s strong support, Health Care Without Harm created a free generic, customizable request for proposals (RFP) for infrastructure risk assessments and mitigation analyses for facilities facing extreme weather events and other climate risks.
NREL REopt Lite™ web tool
The REopt Lite™ web tool evaluates the economics of grid connected photovoltaics (PV), wind, and battery storage at a site. It allows users to identify the system sizes and battery dispatch strategy that minimize a site’s life cycle cost of energy, and it estimates the amount of time a PV, wind, battery, and diesel generator system can sustain the site’s critical load during a grid outage.
Energy and Health Impact Calculator
Health Care Without Harm’s Energy and Health Impact Calculator ("the Calculator") is a free web-based, self-serve tool that uses data from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), as well as other peer-reviewed data, to estimate the negative public health impacts caused by fossil fuel energy use, and the benefits of energy efficiency and renewable energy.
Engaging and Creating a Sustainable Culture within a Changing Model of Care
UNMC Utilizes Employee Engagement to Strive Towards Net Zero Goals
The University of Nebraska Medical Center with its clinical partner Nebraska Medicine launched the LiveGreen Ambassadors Program, an employee engagement structure for volunteers passionate about incorporating sustainability into their role and department, to increase engagement and reach their ambitious net-zero emissions, waste, and water goals by 2030.
Hillcrest Hospital Showcase Project
With the prioritization of energy conservation initiatives and projects through a centralized action plan with engagement across all departments, leaders at Hillcrest Hospital have mobilized caregivers into hundreds of teams to think and act anew about making patient care more affordable.
NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital: Gallery Walks
New York-Presbyterian Hospital launched a retro-commissioning program that blends energy management with improving the quality of patient care for a holistic approach that engages all hospital staff and has resulted in energy and cost savings year-over-year.
Cleveland Clinic: Engaging Clinicians to Reduce Resource Use in Operating Rooms
Cleveland Clinic Foundation ramped-up energy and water efficiency in operating rooms through employee engagement, targeted calls to action, and resource tracking resulting in heightened staff awareness and measurable savings.
Strategies for Communication and Obtaining High-Level Buy-In
UMMC Engages Leadership through ASHE Energy-to-Care Treasure Hunt
The University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) partnered with the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) to host an Energy to Care Treasure Hunt and identify energy-saving opportunities across UMMC's portfolio. The teams found $2.1 million in potential savings and engaged with executive leadership to roll out capital expenditure energy efficiency projects.
Legacy Health: Leveraging Public-Private Partnership for Energy Management
Legacy Health enrolled in Energy Trust of Oregon’s commercial Strategic Energy Management (SEM) Initiative for assistance in establishing a culture around energy savings at its facilities.
Additional Information
Funding Strategies for Energy and Infrastructure Projects:
HackensackUMC: Utility Financing Partnership for Hospitals
In search of a financing option with minimal capital investment by the hospital, HackensackUMC entered a strategic partnership with its utility company, who offers a Hospital Efficiency Program that allocates upfront funding for hospitals to implement energy efficiency projects.
Cleveland Clinic: Establishing Green Revolving Funds in Healthcare
Cleveland Clinic announced at the 2016 Better Buildings Summit that it had established an unprecedented $7.5 million Green Revolving Fund to strengthen its commitment to energy efficiency. The fund stands out as one of the largest annual commitments in any U.S. business sector and is the largest for healthcare.
Ascension: Facilities Infrastructure Pool
Ascension dedicates an annual budget from its Facilities Infrastructure Pool for energy efficiency upgrades at its hospitals to overcome the “first-cost” hurdle or insufficient access to capital, resulting in energy and cost savings.
UPMC: Centralized Energy Management and Capital Set-Aside Fund
UPMC created an Energy Management and Engineering Department with an annual energy budget to prioritize efficiency improvements to reduce energy use, costs, and emissions.
Making the Case for Water Efficiency:
Department of Veteran's Affairs: Erie Medical Center
Erie VA Medical Center (VAMC) replaced water-cooled condensing units with air-cooled units, achieving monthly water savings of more than 55% and over 8,000,000 gallons over the first year of operation.
Davita’s Top-User Water Efficiency/Management Program
DaVita created the Top 150 Water Users program to identify and optimize high water users in an effort to reduce portfolio-wide dialysis center water consumption.
Healthcare Water Efficiency and Program Management Toolkit
This toolkit aggregates resources to provide guidance tailored to the Healthcare sector for efficient water management while maintaining control of infection. A variety of assessments and resources are available in this toolkit for those interested in developing strategies around water management that are separate from energy management.