PHOENIX - The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) introduced its latest green building rating system, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) for Healthcare, at the CleanMed conference. USGBC said the rating system guides the design and construction of both new buildings and major renovations of existing buildings, and can be applied to inpatient, outpatient, and licensed long-term care facilities, medical offices, assisted living facilities, and medical education and research centers.

“Research has shown that when we are treated and heal in a green healthcare facility - one that has a healthy indoor environmental quality and connects us to the outdoors - we heal faster, have shorter hospital stays and fewer return visits,” said Scot Horst, senior vice president of LEED, USGBC. “LEED for Healthcare is now six years in the making, addressing the healthcare industry’s unique green building needs.”

USGBC noted that the LEED for Healthcare rating system represents a culmination of close collaboration with the Green Guide for Healthcare (GGHC), a project of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems and Health Care Without Harm. The GGHC pilot launched in 2007, and feedback from the projects helped inform the creation of LEED for Healthcare.

“LEED for Healthcare represents a milestone for green building,” said Gail Vittori, co-director of Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems and founding chair of the LEED for Healthcare Committee. “Building on the foundational work of the Green Guide for Healthcare, it provides an explicit recognition of health consequences associated with a spectrum of building-related decisions - from location, to water and energy sources and use patterns, and materials specification - and emphasizes integrative design as requisite for a successful design, construction and building performance outcomes.”

LEED for Healthcare was developed 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 other issues that are specific to this building type.

For more information, visit www.usgbc.org/leed/healthcare.

Publication date: 05/02/2011