v2.2 of The Green Guide for Healthcare Released

The Green Guide for Healthcare is "the healthcare sector’s first quantifiable sustainable design toolkit integrating enhanced environmental and health principles and practices into the planning, design, construction, operations and maintenance of their facilities." The program began in 2002 and version 2.0 of the guide was released in 2004, offering L.E.E.D. (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) guidance and is anticipated to be compliant with L.E.E.D. certification for healthcare in late 2007. This seems to be an excellent resource for both new healthcare construction as well as making your existing hospital or clinic more environmentally friendly. In the ER we see an incredible amount of waste and the trend in healthcare has been towards single-use disposable products, not to mention the energy-intensive and wasteful design of most hospitals.
Anyone in healthcare should take a look at this and at the very least, send a copy (preferably electronic) to their hospital CEOs or Environmental committee to review and get the conservation started!