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Proposed Green Hospital Standard Is Out for Public Review

ASHRAE and the American Society for Healthcare Engineering have released for public review a proposed standard for the design, construction and operation of green health-care facilities. ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 189.3P: Standard for the Design, Construction and Operation of Sustainable, High-Performance Health-Care Facilities is open for public comment through Jan. 21.

The draft standard contains procedures, methods and documentation requirements for the design, construction and operation of sustainable health-care buildings. It would apply to patient-care and related support areas within health-care facilities, including hospitals, nursing homes and licensed outpatient facilities, according to ASHRAE.

Among other things, the standard covers site sustainability, water-use efficiency, energy efficiency, indoor environmental quality and the building’s impact on the atmosphere. In addition, a special section addresses the emissions, effluents and pollution commonly discharged from health-care facilities. However, specific ventilation requirements for such facilities are addressed in ANSI/ASHRAE/ASHE Standard 170: Ventilation of Health-Care Facilities.

More information on the proposed standard is available at www.ashrae.org/publicreviews.

Nadine M. Post, ENR's former editor-at-large for buildings, is an award-winning journalist with 45 years of experience covering trends, issues, innovations, controversies and challenging projects. Post has written about many industry giants, including 10 ENR Award of Excellence winners. And she has covered disasters, failures and attacks, including the 1993 bombing and the 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center. Project stories include the redevelopment of the World Trade Center; the 828-meter-tall Burj Khalifa; Los Angeles’ Disney Concert Hall; and Seattle's Bullitt Center and Rainier Square Tower. In 1985, Post wrote McGraw-Hill's book Restoring the Statue of Liberty (1986) for the restoration’s architects—Richard S. Hayden and Thierry W. Despont.

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