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Excerpt from
article:
"'Green' is
sweeping the world we live in, no more so than in the world of
healthcare and hospital design, construction and operations.
And with good reason: what better setting than a hospital or
healthcare facility for the fresh, natural and yes healthy
world that green design creates.
There are a
number of green guides to healthcare design and construction.
The predominant one is the LEED for Healthcare Green Building
Rating System (LHGBRS, which is part of the LEED green rating
and certification system. The LEED rating system is the green
industry standard for building design and construction. Many
architects and engineers advertise their LEED accredited
qualification through the use of the initials “LEED®AP” after
their name. And buildings advertise their LEED certification,
be it a “LEED certified” building (the lowest threshold of
certification), on through “Silver”, “Gold” and then
“Platinum” certification (the highest level). Yet, as of April
2009, the Healthcare edition of LEED has not yet been ratified
and made official.
So, hospital
and healthcare building owners/managers that want to “go
green”, can either at this point, use the general LEED
guideline (although not specific to healthcare, it has been
adapted, unlike the Healthcare edition), or the more relevant
Green Guide for Healthcare (GGHC), which is a voluntary
standard that was and is actually the forerunner of the LHGBRS.
So, since the LHGBRS has not yet been finalized or adopted,
the GGHC is the best current guide to greening the healthcare
environment, so we will investigate that guideline, in this
article, as the framework of how to green the healthcare
environment.
Following is
a conceptual framework for greening your healthcare or
hospital facility, using the GGHC as a guide…"
"Greening the Healthcare
Environment" © William N. Bernstein, LEED®AP, AIA
Hospital Newspaper |
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