Hospitals around the world are busier than ever before. Every health care facility requires a significant amount of energy to operate effectively. Currently, most facilities are at full capacity. By adopting eco-friendly practices, hospital administrators can lower their immense operational costs and reduce their carbon footprint. Although some green initiates require a large initial investment, they’ll result in considerable long-term savings. The following sections reveal how hospitals can use eco-friendly techniques to improve the planet’s health and lower costs.
Renewable Energy
Most hospitals are massive facilities that operate like small communities. Hospital equipment, housing, food services, and administrative offices require a reliable power source that is also cost-effective. Utility bills are a significant portion of every hospital budget. You can reduce your facility’s costs by using solar energy as a power source. Solar power is a renewable energy source that produces zero emissions and is rapidly becoming more dominant in the energy market because of its eco-friendly benefits. The cost of solar system installations for hospitals can be reduced by taking advantage of state and local incentives. Typically, commercial facilities involve placing panels on the building’s roof and installing the solar panel battery on the ground level.
Eco-Friendly Vehicles
Transporting patients to the emergency room is a continuous process for busy hospitals. When your building uses a solar system for power, you can take advantage of the clean energy by using it to charge your vehicles. Although their availability is limited in some areas, commercial electric vehicles are becoming more common in health care facilities. Ambulances, utility trucks, and delivery vehicles account for enormous fuel costs. Electric vehicles can reduce the costs by using charging stations at the facility. Maintenance costs are also lower for green vehicles because they require fewer repairs like oil changes. You may be unable to switch over to electric transportation entirely due to budget restraints, but you can develop a plan that phases in green vehicles gradually.
Conserving Power
Another way to utilize eco-friendly practices that save money is to institute a power conservation program. The program should include new policies on energy use by employees and a proposal to update the lighting with automatic fixtures and LEDs. To conserve power, your employees can unplug their computers and devices before they leave for the day. A machine’s standby mode continues to draw power, and if your administrative offices have several computers, you’ll see significant savings if you keep the devices unplugged. For the lighting system, you can use automatic lights that turn off when everyone leaves a room. Hospitals must have well-lit rooms to operate safely and effectively, but if you upgrade your bulbs to LEDs, you’ll reduce your power consumption and maintenance duties.
Post-Consumer Waste Products
For a hospital’s administrative purposes and invoicing process, paperless options can save the most money. However, several patients and subcontractors may be unable to receive digital messages and need paper receipts. Paper products like typing paper and toilet paper can be replaced with post-consumer waste (PCW) items. PCWs are produced from 100% recycled material and are often cheaper than similar premium products.
Green Web Hosting
There are likely several web providers available in your area, but you can demonstrate that your hospital cares about environmental improvement by using a green web provider. Green web hosts only use renewable energy to power their servers and networks. They are concerned about the world’s reliance on fossil fuels for energy production and are committed to reducing their carbon footprint by using solar or wind power. You can promote your cooperation with green web hosts by giving them credit on the hospital’s homepage or blog.
Eco-Friendly Energy Audits
A hospital is a large operation that houses thousands of machines, appliances and digital devices. Energy efficiency is a serious concern for hospitals, and improper power settings and poor insulation can contribute to higher utility bills. One way that you can discover which sections of the building need improvements is to conduct an energy audit. An audit involves walking around the building and checking for faulty equipment, air leaks around doors or windows and adjusting the heating and cooling settings. You can hire a firm to perform the audit, or you can enlist other employees to help.
Hospitals consume a significant amount of power and contribute to large quantities of waste every year. Your facility can stand apart from others in the community by adopting green practices to help the environment.