July 22, 2008

Healthcare Execs Stress Energy Efficiency

The American Society for Healthcare Engineering and Johnson Controls, recently released the 2008 Healthcare Energy Efficiency Indicator study, which shows that healthcare executives place a higher priority on energy efficiency than executives in other industries.

Sixty-five percent of healthcare respondents called energy efficiency “extremely important,” or “very important,” compared with 57 percent of respondents from different industries.

Two thirds of healthcare organizations reported plans to spend capital on energy efficiency this year compared with 56 percent in the multi-industry survey.

Healthcare organizations will also accept a longer payback period of 4.2 years on energy efficiency projects than other industries which tolerates 3.6 years.

On average, healthcare organizations will spend 8 percent of their capital budgets and 6 percent of their operating budgets to conserve energy over the coming year, 59 percent responded that the need to control costs is a greater motivator than environmental responsibility.

However, only 38 percent of healthcare organizations reported interest in renewable energy compared with 68 percent of multi-industry respondents.

The research was conducted in March 2008 and surveyed 335 energy decision makers in the healthcare industry and over 1,000 executives from multiple industries in the U.S., who were part of the International Facility Management Association.

Nurse.com recently reported on hospitals discovering the economic and environmental benefits of greening their operations through energy efficiency.

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