From the Editor
It’s been a long time coming, but LEED for Healthcare is ready to roll. The U.S. Green Building Council officially released the rating system at the CleanMed Conference earlier this month, culminating seven years of collaboration between USGBC and the Green Guide for Healthcare (GGHC), a project of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems and Health Care Without Harm.

There are already more than 225 LEED-certified health care projects, but LEED for Healthcare is a “milestone for green building” because it addresses the “health care industry’s unique green building needs,” says Scot Horst, senior vice president of LEED.

To that end, the rating system includes three new prerequisites and 15 new credits. The prerequisites include doing an environmental site analysis, minimizing potable water use for medical equipment cooling, and eliminating mercury, which is a persistent bioaccumulative or toxic (PBT) chemical. Mercury is only one of many PBTs, so it’s possible USGBC could expand this last prerequisite in the future. For renovation projects, there is one additional prerequisite in LEED for Healthcare: removal or encapsulation of hazardous materials.

An example of an additional credit is in the Sustainable Sites category — Connection to the Natural World provides up to two points for providing “outdoor places of respite on the healthcare campus.”

The new rating system also includes modifications to six existing prerequisites and 25 existing credits. Many of these are in the Materials & Resources and Indoor Environmental Quality sections of LEED. One example is a credit that now provides up to two points for PBT reduction — lead, cadmium and copper.

LEED for Healthcare is an exciting development for the green building industry. I’ve heard a number of times over the years how poorly suited LEED for New Construction is for health care facilities. Now health care facility managers have a rating system tailored to their specific needs.

I’m excited to hear from you. Have you looked into the new LEED for Healthcare rating system? What are your initial impressions?

Cheers,

Green Strategies
Country Hospital, City Hospital

What’s the best sustainable strategy for a hospital? The answer depends partly on whether the facilities are in rural or urban settings.

In the News
USGBC Releases LEED for Healthcare
The U.S. Green Building Council developed LEED for Healthcare to meet the unique needs of a 24-hour operational facility, including process water use related to medical equipment, rural facility locations, patient populations, often with compromised immune systems, sensitive to chemicals and pollutants, patient and staff health and many other issues that are unique to health care facilities.

AIA Releases Guide for Sustainable Projects
The American Institute of Architects developed the new free guide to assist users in understanding contractual considerations unique to sustainable projects.

Green Multimedia
The Intersection of Evidence-Based Design and Green
This short podcast explains how and why strategies like daylighting and good indoor air quality meet two critical project objectives in health care facilities.

GreenTech Conference & Exposition

Elevate Your Green Cleaning and Prepare for LEED

This presentation from the 2011 GreenTech Conference & Exposition by Jim Peduto, senior partner, American Institute for Cleaning Sciences, defines green cleaning in terms of LEED standards and provides tips and advice on how to implement a green cleaning program in your facilities.