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Environmental Leadership for
Healthier Patients, Facilities, and Communities
September 27, 2006
Hackensack, N.J.
On average, Americans spend 90 percent of their time indoors,
too often in buildings where the construction materials, cleaning
solutions, machinery, and other products emit toxic chemicals. Over
time, these substances can concentrate in the human body and
contribute to poorer health and disease outcomes.
In September, The Center for Health Design, together
with Health Care Without Harm convened 40
influential health-care leaders for an invitation-only symposium,
“Designing the 21st Century Hospital: Environmental Leadership
for Healthier Patients and Facilities.” This event, supported
by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF),
challenged participants to advance strategies for encouraging the
production and use of more cost-effective, environmentally
sustainable design approaches and products. Participants also
proposed ideas on how to expand the green design movement to more
health and health-care facilities.
The nation’s health-care system anticipates a hospital
construction boom worth $200 billion over the next decade. This
building boom presents a rare opportunity to incorporate green
design and construction principles into new facilities.
“Hospital leaders can no longer ignore the evidence that
building green is better for their patients, better for their
staff, and better for their bottom line,” said attendee
Rosalyn Cama, chair of The Center for Health Design’s board of
directors and president of CAMA Inc.
Judith Waterston, president and CEO of Spaulding Rehabilitation
Hospital in Boston, a proponent of green design principles, said,
“The most compelling and resonant benefit of green building,
other than constructing a building that works, is to promote
environmental sustainability and, by doing so, become a leader in
the industry. As a community resource, a hospital has to be taking
a lead role in that.”
With funding from RWJF, The Center for Health Design and Health
Care Without Harm also commissioned six papers for the symposium (click the
link to download the PDF). Each paper addressed a different aspect
of improving the health-care system from an ecological point of
view.
The following articles may also be of interest:
- The Wall Street Journal, “Intravenous Bags, Tubes Redesigned for
Safety,” April 19, 2006
- Marketplace, American Public Media, “Hospitals Going Green,” May
17, 2006
- Time, “Healthier Hospital Food,” May
14, 2006
- Sustainable Industries Journal, “Operation Organic: Learning the Anatomy
of a Healthy Hospital Movement,” March 29, 2006
- San Francisco Chronicle, “Chez Kaiser's Food
Revolution,” August 6, 2006
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