Health Care Organizations See PR Benefit in Green Building

May 12 , 2008 -- Green building approaches can bolster community support for a health care facility construction projects and foster a more positive image in the community, say representatives of organizations that have put up sustainable facilities.

“Health care organizations that have put up green hospitals or clinics have seen public relations and marketing benefits from the green approach,” said Jim Weiss, president of Productive Knowledge Inc., a public relations and marketing firm that researched how health care organizations are adopting green building practices.

“While green building has not caught on broadly in southeastern Wisconsin, health care organizations elsewhere have found significant benefits from sustainable construction practices,” said Weiss, whose firm studied the market for a Wisconsin Green Building Alliance conference.

Health care organizations are finding that green building practices not only are aligned with their health-oriented missions but that green facilities also require significantly less energy to operate and also can be a significant asset for employee recruiting.

A few health care facilities in the Milwaukee area have been constructed with green building elements, but only one so far is seeking certification through the industry-accepted standard, Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a program of the U.S. Green Building Alliance.

That facility is the new Wheaton-Franciscan Hospital in Franklin, in southern Milwaukee County. Other facilities that have or are being built with some level of green building elements include Columbia-St. Mary’s on Milwaukee’s east side, the Froedtert Cancer Pavilion in Wauwatosa, and Aurora in the Waukesha County Town of Summit.

Those green construction projects have brought some media attention, but health care organizations in other communities have been more active in promoting their green building approaches.

Affinity Health System in Wisconsin’s Fox Valley has five LEED-certified clinics, and a major expansion at its St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton was built to LEED standards. But LEED certification was not the driving force for Affinity, according to Steve Wuerger, media relations manager for Affinity.

Affinity has promoted the green aspects of its facilities as being in line with its mission as a health organization, Wuerger said, noting that Affinity believes that green building fosters better health outcomes for patients, better working conditions for employees, and a healthier environment for everyone in the communities where it provides health care.

“We are not into it to get LEED certification,” he said. “We got into it because, as a health care organization, we felt it was the right thing to do.”

While Affinity’s green building has been mission-based, the approach has definite public relations benefits, Wuerger believes.

“It’s a real positive story to tell, and having green buildings is very good for our image in the community,” he said.

Affinity has been proactive in promoting the green aspects of its buildings, and is now developing a separate section of its web site devoted to health care green building.

In Duluth, Minn., the First Street Building of St. Mary’s Duluth Clinic Health System earned a LEED Gold certification in 2007 – the first health care project in Minnesota and the largest in the country at the time of certification to achieve LEED Gold status.

At the time the LEED Gold status was awarded, SMDC chief administrative officer John Smylie said the designation “establishes SMDC as a leader in promoting environmental stewardship and the responsible use of natural resources.” He also pointed out the health benefits of green buildings.

The green aspect of the First Street Building project brought far more media attention than a traditional hospital building project would have brought, said Beth Johnson, public relations manager for the health system. The approach also helped engender community support for the construction project, she said, calling green building a definite public relations benefit.

Those public relations benefits continue passively, Johnson said. As a LEED project, the First Street Building has signs that point out green building aspects for people at the facility for health care needs as well as for people who tour it simply to see the green elements.

“There is a very strong health message in green building,” said Productive Knowledge co-owner David Niles. “Health care organizations, while faced with a heavy slate of building regulations, are starting to see that green building approaches support their health care missions and can be undertaken both health and financial return on investment.”

Contact: Jim Weiss, 414-940-6555