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Healthy Building Resources

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Recent News on Healthy Building

Documents

Future of Fabric (pdf): providing information about toxicants, alternatives, and innovations in fabric for health care
Low VOC Interior Paint Options (pdf)
Screening the Toxics Out of Building Materials: Interior Flooring and Finishes (pdf)
Alternatives to PVC Building Materials for Health Care (pdf)
The Ecological Footprint of the Health Care Industry (pdf)
Building Green Hospitals Checklist
This checklist from the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care is posted on the Canadian Centre for Pollution Prevention Healthcare EnviroNet.
Design for Health Summit Report (pdf)
Report from the groundbreaking Sept. 2004 Design for Health Summit in Boston, MA
New Studies Raise Concerns about PVC Additive Commonly Found in Vinyl Building Products (pdf)
Environmental Impacts of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) Building Materials (Summary of Findings, Full Report (pdf))
This report exhaustively reviews the science behind the environmental health problems created through out the life cycle of PVC as used in building materials.
Should We Phase Out PVC?
Article from Environmental Building News discussing issues around a phase out of PVC.
PVC White Paper (temporarily unavailable)
Analysis by HDR Architecture on why this major firm avoids specifying PVC.
Healthy Building Network PVC Fact Sheet
Water Efficiency Case Studies
The New Hampsire Department of Environmental Services lists several useful case studies related to water conservation.
Minnesota Hospital Slashes Water Use (doc)
A Minnesota hospital recently cut its water usage approximately in half. Here's how. This short article is taken from the Minnesota Healthcare Industry Environmental Management Advisory Group meeting minutes for April 19, 2001, regarding Fairview Southdale Hospital in Edina, Minnesota.
Green Cafeterias (pdf)
An EPA guide that helps you design and plan for a greener cafeteria.
Nursing and Healthy Buildings (pdf)
A fact sheet on how nurses can become advocates for healthier buildings.
Healthy Hospitals: Radical improvements in hospital design (large pdf)
Report from the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE)

Links

Hospitals for a Healthy Environment
Program to educate health care professionals about pollution prevention opportunities in hospitals and healthcare systems especially targeting hazardous chemicals and persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic pollutants. A joint project of the American Hospital Association, the Environmental Protection Agency, Health Care Without Harm, and the American Nurses Association.
ASHE Sustainable Design Award
Award program by American Society for Healthcare Engineering of the American Hospital Association, in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects Academy of Architecture for Health to recognize healthcare sector design professionals and facilities for projects in the area of green design and construction. Awards are given both for projects that have completed design development and for projects that have completed construction.
U.S. EPA Green Building website
EPA's Green Building Web site is a portal to many different EPA web pages on sustainable building issues, including Energy Star, Indoor Environments, Construction and Demolition Debris, Smart Growth and many more.
Energy Star Program
ENERGY STAR is an innovative EPA voluntary program that gives health care facilities the power to reduce air emissions that cause global warming - while strengthening their bottom line. Check out ENERGY STAR's financial analysis tools to determine the overall impact that different energy investment alternatives, and energy performance ratings to assess your health care facility on a scale from 1-to-100.
U.S. EPA Design for the Environment Program
An EPA program that helps businesses incorporate environmental considerations into product, process, and technical management systems design.
U.S. EPA Water Use Efficiency Program
Efficient water use helps reduce the need for costly water supply and wastewater treatment facilities, helps maintain stream flows and healthy aquatic habitats, and reduces the energy used to pump, heat and treat water.
New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services--Water Conservation
The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services offers some good water conservation information, such as various fact sheets and case studies.
U.S. EPA Indoor Air Quality website
An EPA program that promotes simple, low-cost methods for reducing indoor air quality risks.
Center for Health, Environment & Justice
Working to eliminate sources of dioxin and other health related issues in schools and other buildings.
Greenpeace
Working internationally on identifying and stopping dioxin releases and other persistent bioaccumulative toxins.
Blue Vinyl
Information on showings, purchase and rentals of the HBO toxic comedy/documentary about the damaging life cycle of PVC and one filmmaker's travels around the world to convince her parents to rip it off their house. A refreshingly entertaining way to deal with a grim topic.
GreenSage
Sustainable furnishings and materials for the built environment.

Listserves

Sign up for the Green Guide for Health Care forum
Green Building
Forum to discuss and promote green building principles and practices on all types of projects.
Big Green
Forum to discuss and promote green building principles and practices on projects larger than single family houses.
NorCal ADPSR
Broadcast listserve on natural building materials and other green building issues. Emphasis on Northern California/Bay area events and issues but some national discussion as well.