Posted: 7/20/2023
Awards recognize facilities that demonstrate leadership in healthcare sustainability
Parkland Health has been named the recipient of both the 2023 Energy to Care Award and the Energy to Care Sustainability Champion Award by The American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) for its sustainability efforts. The awards are granted to hospitals leading the way in energy efficiency, setting the bar for all facilities striving to reduce their carbon footprints.
ASHE is a membership group of the American Hospital Association for professionals who design, build, maintain and operate hospitals and other healthcare facilities. It is the country’s largest association of its kind.
“We are one of only 10 hospitals in the nation to receive the Energy to Care Sustainability Champion Award, so it is very rewarding to see these efforts recognized by an organization that is dedicated to optimizing the healthcare environment,” said Miranda Skaaning, LEED Green Associate, Director of Sustainability and Energy Conservation at Parkland. “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.”
The 3.3 million-square-foot Parkland campus is one of the largest public hospital systems in the nation, home to a nationally recognized Level 1 Trauma Center and the only verified burn center in North Texas. At nearly twice the size of the old hospital, the new Parkland, which opened in 2015, was designed to meet the ever-changing demands of a rapidly growing Dallas County, making sustainability a challenge.
In 2021, Parkland hired an in-house energy manager to enhance its energy performance and sustainability efforts, ultimately reducing energy consumption by more than 10% across the campus. Parkland soon became the largest Energy Star-certified healthcare campus in the U.S., currently maintaining an Energy Star score of 90.
The entire healthcare campus was sustainably designed. In doing so, Parkland can efficiently manage and control energy use. Using recycled local building materials also significantly reduced the carbon footprint. In 2022, Parkland’s overall recycling rate increased by 4% by way of efforts to properly recycle or repurpose items that could no longer be used. 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.
“There are a lot of ways to save money and to improve your organization’s environmental footprint when there is an expert, either on-staff or working with the organization, to identify and carry out sustainability initiatives,” Skanning shared. “Dedicate the resources to hiring sustainability staff, including both energy management and for general sustainability efforts.”
Parkland was also recently recognized with the Parksmart Bronze certification for the Maple Avenue Garage as part of a program that defines, measures and recognizes high-performing, sustainable garages. Additionally in 2022, Parkland received LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) Gold certification for the Moody Outpatient Center, a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings. This was the sixth LEED Gold Certification Parkland has received since 2013, joining the certifications for its Ron J. Anderson, MD Clinic Building, Women & Infant’s Specialty Health (WISH) Clinic, Central Utility Plant, Tower Garage and Parkland Memorial Hospital.
To learn more about Parkland sustainability efforts, visit www.parklandhealth.org/sustainability.
For more information about Parkland services, visit www.parklandhealth.org.