Tools and Resources

Healthy Building Guidelines

Driven by a concern for public health, a desire to reduce operating costs, and a sense of social responsibility, health care institutions are increasingly embracing healthy building goals. In practice, however, it can often be difficult to determine what it means to integrate environmentally responsible design and building materials into a building framework.

Fortunately, there are a number of resources available that help establish concrete guidelines for healthy building materials and practices. The following links provide a preliminary — but far from comprehensive — set of these guidelines for what it really means to "build green."

  • Global lessons in healthcare by Robin Guenther, FAIA, LEED AP and Walt Vernon, PE
  • Sustainable Health Care Architecture, a resource from Robin Guenther and Gail Vittori, Co-Coordinators of the Green Guide for Health Care. Includes case studies of more than 50 of the best contemporary sustainable healthcare projects, as well as numerous essays contributed by other leaders in sustainable design and healthcare. Additionally, the authors provide background information on LEED for Healthcare, as well as on the Green Guide for Health Care, which they were instrumental in developing.
  • ASHE Green Healthcare Construction Guidance Statement (pdf)
  • Vision statement and comprehensive check list of green design and construction goals and strategies developed by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering.
  • Green and Healthy Buildings for the Healthcare Industry (pdf)
  • Article by Gail Vittori of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems on planning for a green healthcare facility.
  • Kaiser Permanente Position Statement on Green Buildings (pdf)
  • Mission statement from Kaiser on green construction in its healthcare facilities.
  • Minnesota Sustainable Design Guide, Public Review Draft version 2.1 (pdf)
  • The Guide is a design tool that can be used to overlay environmental issues on the design, construction, and operation of both new and renovated facilities. It can be used to set sustainable design priorities and goals; develop appropriate sustainable design strategies; and to determine performance measures to guide the sustainable design and decision-making processes.
  • CHPS 1350 Specifications (pdf)
  • Review of the progressive specifications developed by and now in use by the State of California with an emphasis on their treatment of indoor air quality issues and discussion of issues for healthcare.
  • Key Questions for Environmentally Preferable Flooring Selection (pdf)
  • Questions to ask a manufacturer to understand the life cycle impact of a flooring product (adaptable to other products).

Green Guide for Health Care

Case Studies

More than 100 health care systems — representing more than 32 million square feet of construction — are using the Green Guide for Health Care to build and operate hospitals and health care facilities that are healthier for people and the environment.

Health Benefits of Green Building

  • Building-related health effects: What do we know? (pdf)
    Prepared by Ted Schettler, Science and Environmental Health Network, for the Institute of Medicine's Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine: Workshop #8 — Green Healthcare Institutions: Health, Environment, Economics.
  • Center for Health Design Research Reports (pdf)
    Six research reports on a variety of topics, including evidence-based design research, healing gardens, hospital site visits, patient-centered design, and hospital building design. (Executive Summaries and TOCs)

Worker Productivity and Green Building

The following studies examine the effect that daylighting, a popular green building technique, has on productivity.

Green Building Costs and Benefits

  • Green Building Costs and Financial Benefits

Full report (pdf)
10-page summary (pdf)
Slide presentation (ppt)Landmark report to over 40 California state agencies that provides the first rigorous assessment of the costs and benefits of green buildings.

Health Care Construction Spending

Press Coverage

Key Organizational Resources

Regional Initiatives