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ASHE celebrates the 2023 Sustainability Champions

Ten hospitals are recognized for outstanding leadership in environmental performance
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Facilities that demonstrate outstanding leadership in health care sustainability and decarbonization deserve to be recognized for their efforts, which is why the American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) bestows its Energy to Care® Program’s Sustainability Champion Award every year to worthy applicants. 

This year, 10 different hospitals earned the Sustainability Champion distinction after tailoring exceptional programs and exhibiting strong leadership, dedicated staff and an overall commitment to sustainability that is deeply ingrained in each facility’s culture. The 2023 awardees are Ascension NE Wisconsin – Mercy Campus, Oshkosh, Wis.; Ascension Seton Medical Center Williamson Hospital, Round Rock, Texas; Ascension St. Vincent Fishers Hospital, Fishers, Ind.; Ascension St. Vincent Warrick, Boonville, Ind.; Ascension St. Vincent’s Medical Center Clay County Hospital, Middleburg, Fla.; Atrium Health Lincoln, Lincolnton, N.C.; Atrium Health Mercy, Charlotte, N.C.; Atrium Health Union, Monroe, N.C.; Aurora Medical Center — Oshkosh, Oshkosh, Wis.; and Parkland Health – Main Campus, Dallas.

By meeting and exceeding key goals and metrics, demonstrating forward-thinking and accountability, and following best practices like conducting audits, monitoring progress and comparing their performance against key benchmarks, these 10 organizations stood out among a crowded field of candidates, according to Kara Brooks, LEED AP BD+C, senior associate director of sustainability for ASHE.

“This is only our second year after launching the award. In 2022, there were three winners, and this year 10. The increase shows that health care organizations are taking serious actions to be more sustainable,” she says.

Sustainability objectives pose significant challenges for every hospital as they strive to reduce their environmental impact. Large health care facilities must navigate a constant demand for power due to increasing lighting, heating and water needs, making their energy consumption substantial. The health care sector contributes approximately 8.5% of all annual greenhouse gas emissions, which underscores the importance of its involvement in global decarbonization efforts.

Sustainability Champion Award recipients have actively addressed these challenges by implementing various energy-efficiency initiatives, including rebalancing HVAC airflows and water flows, recalibrating occupancy sensors and thermostats, installing greener materials and LED lighting, modifying operating schedules for top efficiency and, in some cases, adopting renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and geothermal power. These measures can substantially lower expenses while decreasing carbon dioxide equivalent emissions and carbon footprints.

“All of the 2023 award winners are leaders in the field, and I am impressed by the work they have done,” Brooks says. “For instance, the five Ascension hospital winners have committed to counteract the effects of climate change and enhance green thinking across their organizations by setting key goals for energy, greenhouse gas emissions and solid waste reduction; Parkland Health established a team dedicated to greening the operating room through waste reduction, single-use device reduction, sterilization and other initiatives; Aurora Medical Center in Oshkosh utilized on-site operations staff to install a solar array that can provide enough electricity annually to power seven homes; and Atrium Health’s sustainability pledge focuses on energy reduction, air quality, waste reduction and team engagement across its three award-winning hospitals.”

Initially named the ASHE Energy to Care Champion Award in 2016, the accolade was re-christened the Energy to Care Sustainability Champion Award in 2022 to broaden its focus on sustainability. ASHE has also introduced more rigorous criteria for this honor, which now include the need for quantifiable data to support sustainability metrics. 

To qualify for the honor, hospitals now must achieve an Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR® score of 75 or higher, possess ENERGY STAR certification and diligently track energy, water and greenhouse gas emissions using the ASHE Energy to Care Dashboard. Furthermore, hospitals must establish a green team, assign a sustainability leader, and publish a sustainability statement. Any facility that meets these conditions is granted the Energy to Care Sustainability Champion Award.

“I’m hopeful that the work these winners have done to deserve this recognition will inspire others to strive to engage in sustainability initiatives, set goals, empower staff and ultimately earn the award in the future. I am also optimistic that more organizations will be inspired to apply for the award in the coming years, as the 10 recipients likely represent only a fraction of the number of eligible organizations,” Brooks says.

The Energy to Care Sustainability Champions are profiled on the following pages, and winners of other 2023 Energy to Care Awards are here.

Ten health care facilities have earned the American Society for Health Care Engineering’s 2023 Energy to Care® Sustainability Champion Award for demonstrating strong leadership in becoming more sustainable facilities and using saved resources to support patient care. They are profiled on these pages.

Ascension NE Wisconsin – Mercy Campus

Asset reuse, food waste digesters, steam traps and more

Encompassing 139 hospitals in 19 states, Ascension is one of the leading nonprofit health care systems in the U.S. Impressively, five of its facilities earned Sustainability Champion Awards in 2023, including Ascension NE Wisconsin – Mercy Campus in Oshkosh, Wis., a 633,521-square-foot hospital with 117 beds.

Ascension launched an environmental stewardship program across Ascension NE Wisconsin – Mercy Campus and its other hospitals over 10 years ago. In 2017, it surpassed the Department of Energy’s Better Buildings Challenge goal, three years earlier than planned, to reduce energy use by 20% by 2020 from a 2008 baseline. 

What’s more, the organization implemented a long-term environmental impact and sustainability program in 2021 to increase efforts around energy conservation, waste management and environmentally preferred purchasing. In addition, Ascension established a goal of achieving net zero carbon emissions and zero waste by 2040, and meeting the Department of Health and Human Services Health Sector Climate Pledge of reducing emissions by 50% by 2030.

Today, the ENERGY STAR®-certified Ascension NE Wisconsin – Mercy Campus participates in Ascension’s Marketplace platform, which allows sites to list and claim unneeded equipment. The intent is to promote sustainability by reusing assets with additional life remaining, avoiding new asset purchases and removing surplus assets from storage. 

The Oshkosh facility also has a food waste digester — a machine that uses organic microorganisms and oxygen to break down refuse — that has helped divert 32 tons of food scraps and downstream waste from landfills. Steam traps, designed to eradicate steam leaks, have been surveyed and replaced throughout the facility too, leading to greater energy efficiency.

Kyle Sunderlin, PE, energy project manager and demand side lead at Medxcel, which provides facilities management services for Ascension hospitals, says, “We are thrilled and grateful to receive the Sustainability Champion Award, which highlights our team’s efforts to promote healthier communities by having more energy-efficient systems.”

Ascension Seton Medical Center Williamson Hospital

Reducing time between commissioning and implementing solutions

Another Ascension site deserving of serious kudos is Ascension Seton Medical Center Williamson Hospital in Round Rock, Texas, which has 181 patient beds across 370,000 square feet and earned a 2023 ENERGY STAR certification.

What’s more, the Ascension Texas Ministry Market, which includes the Ascension Seton Williamson facility, won a 2023 Governor’s Texas Environmental Excellence Award in the innovative operations/management category for making environmentally beneficial changes, including its efforts to transition to clean energy sources, which will help reduce air pollution in the community and decrease the amount of municipal solid waste sent to landfills.

“We worked hard to retrocommission our air-handling units so that they operate more efficiently and as intended, which provided a great opportunity to validate hospital compliance without over-ventilating our facility. It really showed us new opportunities for proper ventilation control,” says Scott Czubkowski, PE, CHC, national director of energy and facility performance at Medxcel. “And, as with Ascension NE Wisconsin – Mercy Campus, Ascension Seton Williamson participates in Ascension’s food waste digester initiative, which prevents excess waste from reaching landfills.”

He believes other hospitals should take a cue from what he and his team have learned.

“The time between commissioning efforts and implementation of solutions should be accelerated to recognize sustainability results. This must be done thoughtfully to optimize quality for the long term,” says Czubkowski, who expressed gratitude on behalf of the facility for being recognized as a Sustainability Champion.

Ascension St. Vincent Fishers Hospital

Measures include BAS, LED and steam system efficiency

Spanning three stories, with 30 medical-surgical beds, 10 labor-delivery-recovery-postpartum beds and 10 observation beds, Ascension St. Vincent Fishers Hospital in Fishers, Ind., has been honored with a PRC National Excellence in Healthcare award, an internally bestowed Green Champion Award for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and a 2023 ENERGY STAR award, among other accolades. Now, it can add a Sustainability Champion Award to its trophy case, too.

The hospital stands out for optimizing its building automation system (BAS), including keeping it in “auto” mode to improve efficiency. BAS programs allow an operator to monitor all connected building systems from a single interface. 

Ascension St. Vincent Fishers and other Ascension sites have also replaced numerous fluorescent fixtures with LEDs, which reduces power consumption by almost 40%. And its steam blanket program aims to reduce heat loss in insulated pipes and requires less natural gas to meet heating loads. The heat energy saved directly contributes to Ascension’s carbon-reduction goal.

“We’re quite proud of how we’ve implemented programs at many Ascension hospitals, including initiatives designed to optimize existing assets and improve hospital energy efficiency,” says Andrew Fairbank, energy mechanical, electrical and plumbing performance analyst for facility performance at Medxcel. “We’ve found that close collaboration between local operators and national programs is key, as are efforts to replicate successful programs.”

Fairbank says that receiving a Sustainability Champion Award is both gratifying and rewarding for the hospital.

“It validates the hard work and innovation put into energy projects and sustainability initiatives,” he says. “It also serves as recognition for the positive impact made in reducing energy consumption and implementing green practices.”

Ascension St. Vincent Warrick

Sustainability efforts include medical device program

As busy as this smaller critical care hospital can get, it hasn’t put environmentally friendly practices on the low-priority list. Several key sustainability endeavors in recent years have garnered positive attention and acclaim for Ascension St. Vincent Warrick in Boonville, Ind., which is also a recipient of 2023 ENERGY STAR certification.

Case in point: The hospital supports Ascension’s medical device reprocessing program, approved by the Food and Drug Administration, which has collected over 1.1 million devices across all Ascension hospitals — contributing to more than $19 million in savings and 481,000 pounds of waste diverted from landfills. 

“We’ve learned that engagement of operators is critical to energy and sustainability success. There is an excellent collaboration between national energy programs and site engagement at this hospital,” says Andrew Fairbank, energy mechanical, electrical and plumbing performance analyst for facility performance at Medxcel.

Being named a Sustainability Champion is a testament to the team’s hard work and dedication, “and we are truly honored to be recognized for our commitment to reducing energy consumption and promoting sustainability in our community,” he says.

Every green effort by Ascension St. Vincent Warrick’s staff is celebrated at the facility. “On Earth Day this year, the hospital’s Green Team chair and other Ascension associates planted and created two azalea beds as part of a neighborhood park renovation in nearby Evansville,” Fairbank says.

Ascension St. Vincent’s Medical Center Clay County Hospital

Boosting coil efficiency and reducing food waste

Since first opening its doors 10 years ago, Ascension St. Vincent’s Medical Center Clay County Hospital in Middleburg, Fla., has made a strong impression in the region after doubling in size in 2016 and earning an IBM Watson Top 100 Hospitals Award in 2019 and 2020, a Healthgrades Patient Safety Excellence Award in 2019, ENERGY STAR certification and now a Sustainability Champion Award. 

Helping the full-service, 134-bed hospital claim these distinctions are initiatives like the regular cleaning of heating and cooling coils on air-handling units, an “unusual but usable produce” program that reduces waste by distributing healthy food items that might have been discarded due to having an unattractive appearance, and its expanding recycling program. 

The campus has also replaced and upgraded coils to optimize energy consumption, airflow, ventilation, control sequences and related maintenance. 

“Addressing coil pressure drops led to significant improvement in energy savings,” says Scott Czubkowski, PE, CHC, national director of energy and facility performance at Medxcel. “We are very proud of our energy and sustainability work at Ascension St. Vincent’s Clay County Hospital. Focusing on these objectives motivates us to dig deeper until we find successful solutions. The lesson here? Keep digging until you find the root cause.”

Atrium Health Lincoln

Proactive practices drive down energy consumption

Opened in 2010, Atrium Health Lincoln in Lincolnton, N.C., was driven to keep its 101-bed facility green and sustainable virtually from the start by continually making improvements. 

Efforts began with reducing energy to lower health care expenses and decrease energy waste, helping to minimize the use of natural resources and lower carbon emissions. That impressive early momentum continued with proactive practices over the years that included retrocommissioning building automation systems, implementing operating room airflow setbacks and energy-efficient control sequences, and optimizing chilled water systems.

“This was extremely challenging because it touched just about every aspect of the hospital’s HVAC systems, including areas with special pressure control, such as operating rooms and sterile suites. It took months of planning, detailed execution and commissioning over short periods to ensure adequate airflow and pressurization, and minimize downtime for the surgery schedule,” says Michael D. Roberts, PE, SASHE, CHFM, SrHE, director of energy services for facilities management at Atrium Health.

Hard work pays off: Energy consumption at the facility has dropped by 35%, yielding annual energy savings of $103,000. Victories like these helped the hospital earn ENERGY STAR certification six years in a row.

Lincoln’s Green Team has made great strides in plastic elimination and waste reduction, and the campus was named an Arbor Day Foundation TreeCampus Healthcare Facility for three consecutive years.

Roberts credits Atrium Health Lincoln’s site-based plant operations and maintenance team with its winning streak of success. 

“This was the first Atrium Health team to utilize the energy-reduction initiatives, and they stayed the course as we learned how best to implement these changes,” Roberts says. “Sustainability and energy efficiency take time and effort, and the path to success is one of sustained push and perseverance. The work doesn’t necessarily show immediate results, but the effort builds over time. The takeaway here is to stay vigilant, keep plugging away and, little by little, you will get buy-in from everyone involved.”

Atrium Health Mercy

Benchmarked systems and practices bring operational savings

Atrium Health Mercy in Charlotte, N.C., was spending over $1.7 million in annual energy costs a decade ago. But thanks to its diligence in adopting green systems and practices, annual energy consumption has fallen by over a third, triggering a $530,000 annual savings for the 580,000-square-foot facility.

A Sustainability Champion Award was bound to follow, as was ENERGY STAR certification five years in a row and the honor of being named an Arbor Day Foundation Tree Campus Healthcare facility four years running.

As with its sister facility in nearby Lincolnton, the journey toward sustainability started years ago with energy-reduction efforts campuswide like installing airflow setbacks in operating rooms, upgrading outmoded pneumatic HVAC controls with energy-efficient direct digital controls, and retrocommissioning different building automation systems.

Michael D. Roberts, PE, SASHE, CHFM, SrHE, director of energy services for facilities management, says that Atrium Health Mercy’s earth-friendly initiatives wouldn’t be possible without its dedicated staff. 

“Plant operations and maintenance stayed the course with an older building and infrastructure. Our Green Team, in place since 2017, promotes sustainability education and action through internal platforms, social media, emails and events,” he says.

Atrium Health Mercy has long been the health care system’s designated hospital for comprehensive benchmarking via Practice Greenhealth; this benchmarking identifies areas of opportunity for greater efficiencies and provides a facility model for developing systemwide targets toward carbon-neutrality goals.

“Receiving the Sustainability Champion Award shows that sustainability efforts, which began with and were championed by the plant operations and maintenance team as energy-efficiency initiatives, have spread across the facility and now have involvement from many other departments,” Roberts says.

Atrium Health Union

Facility staff creates culture of energy efficiency

When you have a health care facility housing 248 beds and covering 558,000 square feet, preventing energy waste and keeping utility costs down is a constant challenge. Fortunately for Atrium Health Union in Monroe, N.C., its savvy sustainability squad has a keen knack for excising excess and optimizing efficiency. Their strategies have helped reduce annual energy usage at the hospital by approximately 35%.

Atrium Health Union, now ENERGY STAR-certified three years in a row, has especially benefited from participating in a systemwide Sustain the Gains initiative, spearheaded by a mechanic training program that has created a culture of energy efficiency. HVAC mechanics and technicians continue to take ownership of equipment performance, review energy data routinely, and collaborate with colleagues and vendors to improve energy efficiency. 

In 2012, Atrium Health set a five-year goal of a 20% reduction in energy across the acute care portfolio, hitting this goal in 2017. This teammate education and training program has enabled the site-based plant operations and maintenance teams to drive energy reduction across the 7.5-million-square-foot acute care portfolio from the goal of 20% to 35%.

Atrium Health Union has also implemented many of the same upgrades and improvements successfully accomplished at its sister facilities, Atrium Health Lincoln and Atrium Health Mercy. And, as at those sites, the Monroe campus has a robust Green Team in place. 

Energy-reduction efforts at Atrium Health Union, Atrium Health Mercy, Atrium Health Lincoln and across the enterprise have also been recognized by ENERGY STAR. In fact, Atrium Health has been awarded ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year status for six years in a row earning Sustained Excellence for the past four years.

“Established in 2021, these green champions raise awareness of Atrium Health’s sustainability vision and goals and educate teammates at the facility on how to make a difference for the environment,” says Michael D. Roberts, PE, SASHE, CHFM, SrHE, director of energy services for facilities management. “One of our objectives is for each department to have a green champion involved in the Green Team to increase multidisciplinary participation.”

The 2023 Sustainability Champion Award “recognizes our teammates for all the great work they are doing in an area that doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves,” Roberts says.

Aurora Medical Center – Oshkosh

Condensate recovery, solar panels, “food forest” and more

Part of the Aurora Health Care health system, Aurora Medical Center in Oshkosh, Wis., has emerged as a major mover and shaker in health care sustainability across the region. For proof, consider that the facility earned an ENERGY STAR score of 98 out of 100 this past year, which marks 10 years since initially achieving ENERGY STAR certification; in 2022, it was also bestowed an ASHE Energy to Care Sustained Performance Award and a Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence honor. 

Green actions undertaken by Aurora Medical Center – Oshkosh include extensive efforts such as recovering waste condensate from rooftop cooling coils and piping to the cooling tower; installing screen- and roof-mounted photovoltaic array solar panels; replacing or upgrading brushless direct-current motors on circulating and hot water pumps; cultivating a green space “food forest” to grow fresh fruits and vegetables for team members and the community; achieving passive heat recovery on duct runs between cooler operating rooms and warmer waiting rooms; and programming the building automation system for optimal performance. 

Key to the team’s success is innovation and motivation in the pursuit of continuous improvement. These initiatives were, in most cases, conceived, led and physically installed by facilities operations staff. 

The approach has reduced the energy and greenhouse gas intensity by nearly half in the past 15 years to below 150 kilo British thermal units per square foot levels. This equates to removing nearly half a hospital of the same footprint from the grid.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by our peers, who understand the effort it takes to both maintain the safe operations of a medical center and reach strategic inspirational goals,” says John Habeck, manager of facilities operations for Aurora Medical Center.

Jeff Bard, hospital president, commends his staff for their exemplary efforts. “We’re committed to increasing sustainability and conserving natural resources for our communities today as well as for future generations as part of our commitment to helping people live well,” he says. “And I am proud Aurora Medical Center – Oshkosh is helping to set that precedent.”

Parkland Health – Main Campus

Massive campus improves HVAC and energy performance

Parkland Health, one of the largest public hospital systems in the nation and a Level I trauma center with 878 beds, spans a whopping 3.3 million square feet on its main campus in Dallas. That kind of real estate makes it particularly susceptible to squandered energy. 

But in 2021, Parkland hired an in-house energy manager to enhance its energy performance and sustainability efforts. An energy management framework was created and initiatives were implemented that improved boiler and chiller optimization, temperature setpoints, system upgrades, demand management and renewable energy opportunities. 

These efforts reduced energy consumption across the property by over 10%. Parkland Health soon became the largest ENERGY STAR-certified health care campus in the U.S., currently maintaining an ENERGY STAR score of 90.

“In 2022, Parkland received LEED Gold certification for a new 525,000-square-foot clinic building, the Moody Outpatient Center,” says Miranda Skaaning, LEED Green Associate, director of sustainability and energy conservation for Parkland Health. “Parkland also increased its total available recycling streams to over 40 types of items.”

In fact, between 2021 and 2022, the hospital’s entire energy program reaped more than $2 million in savings and increased recycling by 275 tons of waste.

“What’s particularly rewarding is being able to reduce energy consumption by 10% on a campus where the buildings have been open for seven years or less and a major retrocommissioning project had already been completed,” Skaaning says. “Our sustainability and facilities teams have put in a lot of effort to create and implement forward-thinking initiatives that improve both our bottom line and our impact on the environment.”

Erik J. Martin is a freelance writer based in Oak Lawn, Ill.

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