Best practices guide for healthy and sustainable buildings in the healthcare industry
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Healthcare facilities comprise 30% of the new building market, but only a fraction seek certification for best environmental and energy standards through LEED or other programs. Given the difficulty in improving the sustainability and health of these buildings and their importance in the construction market, many new initiatives are aimed at improving practices in the healthcare sector. One new resource, a best practices guide for healthy and sustainable building design, construction, and operiltions for the healthcare industry, is now available online.
For the past two years, a multi-stakeholder group has been engaged in creating a voluntary, self-certifying system designed to help hospital owners and designers implement LEED requirements. The group, convened by the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems and working with the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) and the USGBC, has created a "Green Guide for Health Care". This guide adapts LEED requirements to hospitals' unique characteristics.
The guide is in a pilot phase and already several major facilities,
including Kaiser Permanente, the largest nonprofit health plan in the
US, have agreed to pilot the Green Guide.
Download the guide at http://www.gghc.org/ . Click here to read more on greening hospitals.
