July 19, 2006—Making a public commitment to improve energy efficiency in hospitals by 10 percent, the American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE) of the American Hospital Association (AHA) announced that it is joining the Energy Star Challenge.
ASHE is launching a two-year campaign, E2C, to educate its members about the environmental and economic benefits of pursuing energy efficiency improvements in healthcare facilities.
Energy Star is a government-backed program helping businesses and consumers protect the environment through superior energy efficiency. More than 8,000 organizations partner with EPA in the Energy Star program. In 2005 alone, Americans with the help of Energy Star, saved about $12 billion and prevented greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 23 million vehicles.
As a participant in the Challenge, ASHE is agreeing to: identify hospitals with successful energy programs; develop case studies of their energy management methods; produce an energy efficiency section on ashe.org; develop a chapter focused energy program; and recognize members for energy efficiency improvements of 10 percent or more.
For more information, visit the ASHE Web site.
