Kaiser Permanente Highlights Its Industry-Leading Green Buildings

(Credit: Kaiser Permanente)

Health care provider Kaiser Permanente recently highlighted its LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified buildings, detailing the steps they took to earn the designations. Kaiser provided specifics on five of its 65 certifications.

Kaiser Permanente San Diego Medical Center (LEED Double Platinum):

This facility is a purpose-built green building, constructed from the ground up with sustainability in mind. The hospital uses cutting-edge technologies to produce its own electricity, heat, and cooling. It was the world’s first LEED Double Platinum hospital.

Kaiser Permanente Santa Rosa Medical Offices (LEED Platinum):

This facility utilizes the electricity generated from its parking lot solar installation to power the majority of its operations with renewable energy. It was the first net-zero carbon emissions health care building in the US.

Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Hills-Crenshaw Medical Offices (LEED Platinum):

Built with recycled content and low-emitting materials, this facility features high-efficiency water, solar, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning technology.

Kaiser Permanente Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine (LEED Gold):

Energy efficient windows that minimize solar heat gain from the Pasadena, California, medical school reduces demand for air conditioning. A high-tech control system allows more than 98% of the building’s energy and water use to be monitored for top efficiency.

Kaiser Permanente West Oahu Medical Office at Kapolei (LEED Gold):

One of the 15 Kaiser facilities to be certified last year, the facility houses a solar-powered microgrid with battery storage, enabling it to be powered solely with renewable energy every hour of every day.

Kaiser was recently identified by the US Green Building Council as the top health care organization in the world for its number of LEED-certified buildings (65) as well as number one in the US for its LEED-certified health care square footage (6.9 million square feet).

Back in 2020, Kaiser announced that it had become the first health care system in the U.S. to achieve carbon neutral status using a combination of renewable energy and carbon offsets. The certification, given by the CarbonNeutral Protocol, encompasses both direct (Scope 1 and Scope 2) and indirect (Scope 3) emissions.

The health care sector is responsible for 8.5% of domestic greenhouse gas emissions in the US, according to a study published in Health Affairs in 2020.