Hospitals in pursuit of excellence

The Power of Environmental Sustainability

Hospitals and health care systems can support their missions and also many additional benefits by tapping into the power of environmental sustainability. Wentworth-Douglass Hospital, a 178-bed hospital in Dover, N.H., completed a series of sustainability projects that have brought significant energy savings. For example, using its energy management system more effectively generated $150,000 a year in savings, and installing low-flow fixtures saved $200,000 a year. Wentworth-Douglass used the “Sustainability Roadmap for Hospitals,” created by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE), the Association for the Healthcare Environment (AHE) and the  Association for Healthcare Resource & Materials Management (AHRMM), all AHA personal membership groups. The roadmap helped the hospital identify easy-to-implement projects that involved no major investments of finances or time. Environmental sustainability efforts can lower operational costs and allow hospitals to direct more resources to patient care.

For more information, contact Dave Dagenais, director of plant operations and security, at dave.dagenais@wdhospital.com. The Hospitals in Pursuit of Excellence guide “Environmental Sustainability in Hospitals: The Value of Efficiency” has more information and examples about environmental sustainability.