Quality healthcare starts with constructing and operating healthy buildings free of materials that contain chemicals of concern or poor indoor air quality. We spend 90% of our lives indoors, and buildings are responsible for more than one-third of all energy consumption, 12% of water use and nearly 40% of carbon dioxide emissions. It’s important that we “first, do no harm” from the moment a patient steps inside one of our facilities.
We follow Practice Greenhealth’s guidance for safer chemicals in our interiors including flooring, finishes, and furniture. While virtually all humans are exposed to harmful chemicals during their lives, our goal is to reduce potentially harmful exposures for everyone who enters our hospitals, including patients, staff, and visitors.
The University of California System has adopted LEED, or Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design as the standard for green building policies. LEED is a program that provides third-party verification of green buildings. Building projects satisfy prerequisites and earn points to achieve different levels of certification. Prerequisites and credits differ for each rating system and teams choose the best fit for the project. All of our new construction must be certified at a minimum LEED Silver, striver for LEED Gold or higher and exceed Title 24 Requirements by at least 20%.
For a full list of our LEED certified projects visit the LEED Project Database.
