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Is your hospital an efficient and sustainable facility?
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The U.S. healthcare sector’s energy use is adversely affecting the environment as well as the health of those we intend to serve:
- “The EPA estimates that the U.S. healthcare sector’s current annual electricity use of 73 trillion kilowatt-hours (kWh) contributes $600 million per year to healthcare costs via increased asthma and other respiratory illness” (Source: Chicago Green Health Care Initiative).
- If the U.S. healthcare system were a country, it would rank 13th in the world for greenhouse gas emissions (Source: Ziba Kashef, Yale News, 6/9/16).
- Our country's healthcare system is the most expensive in the world, using vast amounts of energy. It is estimated that the U.S. healthcare system generates 8% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions.
The healthcare industry is under tremendous pressure to reduce operating expenses, including energy costs. A 2014 survey by the American Society of Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) showed that energy accounts for more than half the annual budget of a typical hospital facilities director — more than staff, supplies, and outsourced services combined (below)
Reducing energy costs means adopting a strategic approach to energy management, by continuously tracking and improving energy consumption. To help hospital facilities managers in this undertaking, Grumman/Butkus Associates (G/BA) initiated an annual survey in 1995, collecting data on energy usage and costs for Midwestern hospitals.
Today, healthcare facilities nationwide are invited to participate in the Hospital Energy and Water Benchmarking Survey free of charge by submitting responses to a short list of questions regarding their usage of electricity, natural gas, oil, purchased steam, purchased chilled water, and domestic water/sewer. G/BA compiles and analyzes the data, as a free service to the industry.
Since its inception, this annual survey has helped hundreds of hospitals benchmark their energy performance against others, in an anonymous format. Participants are provided with graphic comparisons to all hospitals in the survey, as well as numeric comparisons to their own facilities.
With the information provided by a total of 134 hospitals — located in Illinois (40), Wisconsin (25), Michigan (21), Texas (18), Indiana (11), and several other states — we have updated our databases for energy and water.
Charts included in the report include detailed data on the following:
- Fossil Fuel Energy Consumption in Btu/sf/yr
- Fossil Fuel Energy Cost in $/sf/yr
- Average Fossil Fuel Energy Cost in $/therm
- Electric Energy Consumption in Btu/sf/yr
- Electric Energy Cost in $/sf/yr
- Average Electric Energy Cost in $/kWh
- Total Energy Consumption in Btu/sf/yr
- Total Energy Cost in $/sf/yr
- Water and Sewer Usage in Gallons/sf/yr
- Water and Sewer Cost in $/sf/yr
- Average Water and Sewer Cost in $/1,000 gallons
- Carbon Footprint in lbs/sf/yr
Our findings are reported in two parts: fossil fuel and electricity consumption and costs (Part 1, this report) and water and sewer usage and costs, as well as carbon footprint data and energy-per-bed data (Part 2, to be released next week). Charts in both reports may be enlarged by clicking on each image.
All of our charts, including data not published in this bulletin, are available using the link below:
2017 G/BA Hospital Energy+Water Survey Results
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