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Healthy Building Guidelines
Driven by a concern for public health, a desire to reduce operating costs, and a sense of social responsibility, health care institutions are increasingly embracing healthy building goals. In practice, however, it can often be difficult to determine what it means to integrate environmentally responsible design and building materials into a building framework. Fortunately, there are a number of resources available that help establish concrete guidelines for healthy building materials and practices. The following links provide a preliminary—but far from comprehensive—set of these guidelines for what it really means to “build green.”
 Green Building Priorities for Healthcare (pdf)
Priority setting for green construction in healthcare developed by the Building Green Health Care work group of the Healthy Building Network and Health Care Without Harm.
ASHE Green Healthcare Construction Guidance Statement (pdf)
Vision statement and comprehensive check list of green design and construction goals and strategies developed by the American Society for Healthcare Engineering.
Green and Healthy Buildings for the Healthcare Industry (pdf)
Article by Gail Vittori of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems on planning for a green healthcare facility.
Kaiser Permanente Position Statement on Green Buildings (pdf)
Mission statement from Kaiser on green construction in its healthcare facilities.
Minnesota Sustainable Design Guide
The Guide is a design tool that can be used to overlay environmental issues on the design, construction, and operation of both new and renovated facilities. It can be used to set sustainable design priorities and goals; develop appropriate sustainable design strategies; and to determine performance measures to guide the sustainable design and decision-making processes.
CHPS 1350 Specifications (pdf)
Review of the progressive specifications developed by and now in use by the State of California with an emphasis on their treatment of indoor air quality issues and discussion of issues for healthcare.
Key Questions for Environmentally Preferable Flooring Selection (pdf)
Questions to ask a manufacturer to understand the life cycle impact of a flooring product (adaptable to other products).
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