From Guest Blogger Brooke Chaplan: Are Hospital Green Initiatives Really Saving Money?

Sustainability is known as the ability to continue something indefinitely and is a widespread theory that many industries are taking to protect and support our fragile environment. Though this isn’t possible for everyone, greener, more environmentally friendly ways of doing business are encouraged and often thought as cost reducing as well. Is this true? Could going green honestly save a substantial amount of money?

There are nearly 6000 registered hospitals in the US alone with nearly 1 million employees overall according to data from the AHA. This equates to nearly 900 billion dollars in expenses and is bound to increase should admissions continue to rise, what with the Baby Boomer generation retiring. With most current green technology focused on saving energy, it’s a good place to start since it typically yields the most savings.

Lighting
In any commercial atmosphere, lighting contributes to nearly 35% of electricity used. Lighting standards have changed in the past few years to get rid of incandescent bulbs, but if your hospital is still using these inefficient sources of light there are some things you need to know. Nearly 90% of the energy from these bulbs are given off as heat. This means if you continue to use these bulbs you’re simply throwing money away.
The lay of the land with energy-efficient lighting now stands with three general types: halogen incandescent, CFLs, and LEDs. Since a large hospital would require the most cost-efficient solution, LED lights are the premium choice. These lights use 20-25% less energy than traditional incandescent bulbs and use less energy than their halogen incandescent counterparts. That means literally cutting a lighting bill by 75%!

Computer Usage
Another large use of electricity in hospitals is computer use. Medical personnel use large databases to locate secure information about a patient at any given time, but there can be large gaps in time where the computer sits idle as employees tend to their patients, or have no use for their computers temporarily. Even clinics and schools like Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions use computers every day to educate and inform patients and staff.
Today’s computers spend a great deal of time idle, so having an energy-efficient computer that use the bare minimum energy when idle is paramount for cost savings. Energy-saving brands like Ecova or Energy Star can save anywhere from 40-70% of electricity. In fact, Ecova stresses that over the course of a year, their computers can save $19 versus their Energy Star counterparts, and this isn’t counting the shift from your run-of-the-mill computer. That’s $1900 a year for 100 computers or $19,000 in savings!

Waste and Miscellaneous Practices
In some cases, it’s best to learn from those who set an example. Just a few years ago, a Medical Center in Boston underwent a vast change as they strived to reach a more sustainable level of waste disposal and set a changing trend in the industry. Megatons of waste are created every year in the healthcare field, and it’s vital to recycle and compost what you can to avoid dumping as well as reduce risk for hazardous chemicals having a public presence.
The Boston-based medical center has sent 1.5 tons of food to a compost pile per week just by scraping leftover food off of trays. They also got rid of disposable water pitchers and instead use reusable plastic for its maternity wards, which has reduced their hydration supplies by a fifth. Most notably, by switching to washable and reusable types of containers, this hospital got rid of 80 tons of waste per year. These and other changes have contributed to cost savings of over $300,000 dollars a year.

Change isn’t easy and comes in many forms. Though you may not see initial changes in energy or waste consumption for hospitals as profitable, you are likely to see a return on investment in the long-term that will free up funds for the health and welfare of your patients.