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Issues: Green Building
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Green Building: Global Overview

The construction and use of buildings consumes billions of tons of raw materials, generates significant waste, consumes a tremendous amount of energy and contributes toxic emissions to the air. Given this impact, there are significant opportunities to improve environmental quality and human health through the green planning, design and construction of health care facilities.

Health Care Without Harm is at the forefront of efforts to transform the way hospitals are designed, built and operated, through its involvement with the Green Guide for Health Care, a multi-year project of Health Care Without Harm and Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems. This free tool is the the first quantifiable sustainable design, construction and operations toolkit customized for the healthcare sector, and is being used by leading health care institutions around the world to build facilities that are healthier for people and the environment.

For detailed information on this topic, in addition to tools and resources, select your region of the world from the links at the top of this page.

Brigham and Women's Hospital's Shapiro Cardiovascular Center has implemented numerous green initiatives: 75% of the building interior is exposed to natural light, the air filtration is very efficient, neutral cleaners are used on the floors, latex gloves have been eliminated, medical waste minimized, and even the construction debris was recycled. "There's a myth that building a greener facility is substantially more expensive, but sometimes you can do the right thing at less cost."
— Rick Bass, Director, Environmental Services
Brigham and Women's Hospital
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