American healthcare’s financial trajectory is unsustainable. According to CMS, the nation’s spending on healthcare increased from $2.34 trillion to $2.47 trillion from 2008 to 2009, and is predicted to increase another 80% by 2019. Every year we spend $16 billion on new healthcare facilities. If all of these facilities were high performance buildings, the healthcare system would literally save billions of dollars. All that is needed is for the systems to rethink the way their buildings are designed and constructed. From a purely business perspective, it is the single number one way to cut spending as well as the easiest and most readily available.
Nearly 99 percent of all hospitals in the United States are not green. Yet, they could, and frankly, should be. Because they are not, thousands of healthcare facilities have bad indoor air quality, use noxious building materials, over‐consume energy & water and are not ideal for you to visit. You are more likely to come into contact with toxic metals and chemicals in hospitals than any other building type. The medical profession has only recently started to view green building as a real option.
Green Design Doesn’t Have to Cost More
Honestly, why should anyone paying more when it’s not necessary? Energy is one of the largest expenses for healthcare facilities. They use double the amount of energy per square foot than office buildings. The healthcare industry spends $6.5 billion on energy each year which in turn is passed along to the consumer. Through sustainable design, energy reductions of 12 to 20 percent are achievable. As the green product market matures, greater energy savings will be possible for a minimal capital investment. Moreover, if the entire industry redesigned their buildings to save 20 percent on energy that would translate to a billion dollars in savings each year. Not doing so is money down the drain. For UPMC‐East, we were able to cut their energy usage by nearly 16 percent meaning hundreds of thousands of dollars saved every year.