GoGreen ’12 Austin Green Line Series: Seton Healthcare Family’s Trennis Jones on Sustainability’s Growing Business Case in Healthcare

Healthcare organizations account for four percent of the nation’s billable square footage, yet they consume more than eight percent of the nation’s energy annually. And their costs, along with demand, are sky rocketing as baby boomers age and key resources (oil, water, etc.) grow scarce. Sustainability, it would seem, is on the mind of every hospital executive in America. And if it’s not, it should be. In this installment of the Green Line Series, Trennis Jones, Senior Vice President at Seton Healthcare Family, gives us the big picture breakdown for sustainability’s business case in healthcare.

GoGreen Conference: Let’s start big picture. This is a transformative time for healthcare — lots of questions are being asked on how it can improve, how it can increase the quality of care and how it can be more financially efficient. From your perspective, what is the overarching vision in your industry for how sustainability can make an impact on what you do?

Trennis Jones: If you look at hospitals alone — we use about 836 trillion BTUs of energy annually. We produce a little over 30 pounds of CO₂ emissions per square foot — broken down, that is more than 2.5 times the energy intensity in carbon dioxide emissions for commercial office buildings. So, if U.S. hospitals spend over $5 billion annually on energy ­­ — often equaling one to three percent of a typical operating budget — that works out to about fifteen percent of the profits. That’s a big chunk.

Then you have in-patient facilities, which use an average of 240,000 BTUs per square foot. Hospitals account for four percent of the national billing square footage, but we account for eight percent of national energy consumption on average. That four percent of difference represents a big opportunity for us. The question is:  How do we capitalize on that and not lose the sight of the fact that our number one goal is to care for our patients better?

Big picture for us involves looking at how we can construct and renovate better. How can we construct that building going up differently than we would have in the past in order to be greener and more efficient? We recently finished construction on Dell Children’s Medical Center in Austin. That building was constructed with the vision of it being a “green hospital.” In fact, it was the first LEED platinum hospital in the world. And even though we just closed out on the main building, we are adding on a new unit that will feature at a 20-kilowatt photovoltaic array for the solar water heating system that will reduce energy consumption for that unit by three percent. With the future in mind, we are also installing three electric vehicle (EV) charging stations for patients who are driving progress by owning an EV.

GG: Obviously these initiatives are already having an effect on Seton’s bottom-line. Do you feel sustainability can directly affect the quality of patient care as well?

Sustainable Opportunities Summit: Green Line Series w/GSA’s Sue Damour

The US Government has some Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals (BHAGs, for short) — which we are big fans of. One of them? To be a Zero Environmental Footprint entity. With budget cuts looming and global competition heating up, it’s these kind of aggressive goals that will drive innovation and efficiency in our government and the industries affected by its supply chain influence. In this Green Line Series interview, General Services Administration’s (GSA) Rocky Mountain Regional Administratior, Susan Damour, tells us about the competitive edge green businesses have in selling to governments and ways GSA is making an impact on the supply chain in favor of a more sustainable economy.

Sustainable Opportunity Summit: What are the main tenants of GSA’s Sustainable Procurement Policy? Why did GSA adopt its Green Gov effort?

Susan Damour: GSA’s role as acquisition professionals is to be the anchor and the steady hand for the rest of the government. The agency provides more than $55 billion of best-value products, services and solutions for federal customers. That means that if we were a private sector company, we would rank in the top half of the global Fortune 500 companies.

GSA adopted the “Green Gov” effort for a couple of reasons. The government is frequently driven by Executive Orders (EO), such as EO 13514. At GSA, we embraced the sustainability agenda in the extreme, if you will. We agreed as a senior management team to set a Zero Environmental Footprint (ZEF) as our organization’s aspirational goal. And yes, this is certainly ambitious.

ZEF is about a good government getting ever better. It’s about no waste. Eliminating waste is a huge lever for government as it faces down budget constraints and takes full advantage of innovation bursting onto the scene. No waste is about finding new ways to wring out inefficiencies while boosting performance. It gives us a clear path between great constraints and even greater possibilities. GSA supports that 95 percent of new contract actions include the supply or use of products and services that are environmentally friendly.

SOS: What kind of impact has this policy made, thus far? Are you seeing significant change since its adoption? What kind of future impact do you expect going forward?

SD: Because of our role, GSA has the potential to make, move and influence markets. We are in the position to model new behavior, cutting-edge technology, and inventive ways of thinking for the rest of the federal family and the private sector. We’ve had a number of changes in our business. Let me give you a few examples.

First, we build, manage and dispose of 374.6 million square feet of space. At the end of FY 2011, GSA reported an 18.8 percent reduction in Energy Use Intensity from the 2003 baseline for goal-tracked buildings.

For the same set of buildings, we achieved a two percent annual reduction and at the end of FY 2011, we reported a 13.3 percent reduction from the 2007 baseline in water consumption. Across the nation, we awarded 250 water conservation projects. At the end of FY 2011, we installed advanced water meters in 139 buildings and advanced energy meters in 228 buildings.

GSA is also practicing sustainable design and implementing sustainable operations and maintenance practices across multiple buildings in our existing portfolio. As of September 2011, we achieved 62 LEED certifications, nationwide, in our lease construct and owned inventory.

As of September 2011, 285 leases representing 11 million square feet in 252 buildings included the entire suite of green lease provisions available in GSA’s Request for Lease Proposal. Additionally, GSA held leased space in 147 buildings with a third party green building certification.

Finally, we purchase and maintain a federal fleet of some 400,000 vehicles. In FY 2009, GSA used approximately $64 million provided by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to replace more than 17,000 motor vehicles with more energy efficient motor vehicles. The new vehicles have a combined fuel economy of 7.8 miles per gallon higher than the vehicles replaced. GSA’s purchase included 3,106 hybrid-electric vehicles, the federal government’s largest one-time purchase of hybrid vehicles. The agency is practicing electronic stewardship to reduce energy consumption, with 99 percent of GSA electronic assets being Energy Star qualified.

SOS: Is there a particularly successful project in the Rocky Mountain region that demonstrates the power and benefits of green purchasing?

SD: GSA’s vision is to turn the Denver Federal Center in Lakewood, Colorado, into the most sustainable campus in the country by 2020. GSA recently installed seven megawatts of solar photovoltaics that when combined with an already existing 1.2 megawatt solar park, will provide more than 15 percent of the campus’ annual electrical needs.

The combined capacity of all the solar arrays is enough to power 1,064 residential homes for one year. After EO 13423 was signed in 2007, the Rocky Mountain Region recognized a need for training materials to educate federal agencies on how to meet the goals. So, GSA developed a course which showcased how GSA and our schedule vendors can help them meet their green procurement goals.

SOS: Does a greener supply chain (within GSA’s scope of work) make America more globally competitive? Will participating vendors play a role in securing a continued leadership role for the United States as we forge deeper into this millennium? If so, how?

SD: Sustainable products are more cost effective in the long-term. Vendors can be innovative and make products with more environmentally friendly attributes. The United States Government spends more than 300 billion dollars annually on various goods and services. When you consider the acquisition regulations federal buyers must adhere to (i.e., Buy American Act and Trade Agreements Act), it’s clear that our green procurement goals can and will affect the competitive edge of our country.

Take a simple example of the paper we use in our offices. The EPA mandated that all paper contain at least 30 percent post-consumer recycled content. This pushed the manufacturers of printers and copiers in to adjust the equipment to work with more recycled content. It has affected the market for recycled consumer paper as well as the supply chain of the paper, itself. In turn, it makes these products available to the average shopper at a competitive price.

SOS: Do manufacturers and distributers with sustainable products or operations gain a competitive edge in selling to the Federal Government? If so, what kind of standards are you looking for from vendors? How do they benefit?

SD: Yes, manufacturers and distributors can align their products to the various Green Icons on GSA Advantage. Doing so will give their products appeal to the agencies that need/want to buy products with environmentally-friendly characteristics. GSA Advantage offers thousands of products and services to meet your environmental purchasing goals. Products found on GSA Advantage that have an environmental attribute will show above their conventional counterparts in GSA Advantage searches.

The standards vary depending on the category of product or service such as BioPreferred, Energy Star Compliant, CPG Item, EPEAT or NESHAP Compliant. For many products on GSA Advantage, vendors determine (self-certify) which environmental symbols will be listed with a product.GSA also publishes an annual environmental edition of MarkeTips — a marketing publication directed to users of the GSA supply system — that highlights green products and services.

SOS: Where can businesses and organizations go to find information about Green Gov policies and resources for joining GSA in its quest to green the supply chain?

SD: Businesses and organizations can find information about green government policies and resources at GSA.gov website. Also, be sure to take a look at whitehouse.gov/greengov.

Susan Damour is the Rocky Mountain Regional Administrator for the GSA. She will also be speaking on the Selling To Governments With Sustainable Procurement Policies panel at the 2012 Sustainable Opportunities Summit (presented by CORE and produced by the GoGreen Conference) in Denver, Wednesday, March 21. Don’t miss Susan and 60+ additional green business leaders share insights and advice on how to be a sustainable — and profitable! — company. Register through February 21 and take advantage of Early Bird Rates.

Topic DrillDown: How to Become a Green Business in Austin

Image Credit: City of Austin

If you live in the City of Austin, Texas and you want to run a green business—you’re in luck. Not only does the City support and encourage its hometown organizations (over 80% of which are micro-businesses; having 20 employees or less) to embed sustainability into their values and operations, but it provides coordinated programs to make the process easier, faster and the results more impactful. At this year’s GoGreen Austin event, the City will be hosting a special session called How to Become a Green Business:  An A – Z Guide. This session, in particular, will be a great opportunity to pair the strategic and tactical advice learned throughout the day at GoGreen with concrete information about the real-world resources available in the Austin area. Austin’s own Chief Sustainability Officer, Lucia Athens, will moderate a panel of local business leaders who have worked with the City to lead their companies through the adoption of greener values and programs. The session will focus on the following aspects of greening your organization:

• Energy Efficiency (and available upgrade incentives)
• Water Management
• Zero Waste Strategies
• Commuting Solutions
• Carbon Footprint Reduction

This session will also speak to a new understanding of what sustainability means for the Austin Community. The City’s Office of Sustainability has outlined a definition  that shows the integrated nature of how it applies to all aspects of doing business and building a thriving, prosperous community.

Sustainability means finding a balance among three sets of goals: 1) Prosperity and jobs, 2) conservation and the environment, and 3) community health, equity and cultural vitality. It means taking positive, proactive steps to protect quality of life now, and for future generations. — Office of Sustainability, City of Austin

Image Credit: Office of Sustainability, City of Austin

Learn more about the City of Austin’s Green Business Leaders program at their website. To view all GoGreen ’12 Austin sessions and register for the event, Wednesday, April 4, visit austin.gogreenconference.net.

Sustainable Opportunities Summit (Produced by: GoGreen) Mark Gasta on Moving People To Embrace Sustainability

You don’t get to be Chief People Officer without a keen understanding of what motivates us as human beings. Vail Resorts’ CPO, Mark Gasta, works to uncover our drivers as professionals and to create behavior change that not only benefits us as people, but supports the bottom line and sustainability as well. In our Q+A, Mark shares his expert insights on moving people to embrace sustainability with dramatic results.

GoGreen: A lot of talk around sustainability for business focuses on efficiency and systems. What about the people? Where does the human element factor in and how important is it in the grand scheme of things?
Mark Gasta: Businesses are a system, and all of these factors play together. So if we are thinking about the environmental system, or other pieces of the system, and not paying attention to the human aspects of it, ultimately it won’t be sustainable. The system will become imbalanced.

In order to create organizations that do both well and good, we have to ensure the entire system is taken into consideration and that all intersections are tended to. Then we can maintain our profit margins, while also accomplishing our mission as an organization in the community. None of the elements in the system are mutually exclusive. When we drive shareholder value, we not only give that value to them, but we can then reinvest in our employees, our guest experience, our communities and environments–all are inextricably linked.

GG: From the human resources perspective, is sustainability a selling point for recruiting talent and retention rates?
MG: It is an incredibly strong selling point, because people want to feel good about the organization they work for. People want to understand how their efforts can contribute to a larger purpose. It doesn’t matter if the employee is coming just because they love the sport (in our case) and want to be a part of that sport. The stronger that connection is, the more they want to share this sport with others and share nature with others.

GoGreen Phoenix 2011 – Photomontage Excellence

Photos from GoGreen Phoenix 2011 are up! Many thanks to everyone that attended our inaugural event; you helped make our first year a smashing success! Shout outs to all of our sponsors, speakers, exhibitors and our awesome photographer:  Ken Baker —you made us all look great and really captured the excitement of the conference. Enjoy!

GoGreen ’11 Phoenix Green Vid: Kevin Tuerff Brings Straight Talk On The Evolution of Greenwashing in America

It might be a wee bit dramatic to say that greenwashing has reached epidemic proportions in America. But the truth is some companies and organizations are trying to cash in on the brand equity true sustainability can bring without walking the talk themselves. Also true—there are far more businesses doing the work to be green, but going overboard on their message unintentionally. The folks at EnviroMedia, and co-founders Valerie Davis and Kevin Tuerff in particular, are experts when it comes to spotting the phonies, the unwitting offenders and advising companies on how to communicate their sustainability values in an honest, transparent way. In this special video edition of the Green Line Series, Kevin shares with us his views on the politicization of sustainability, strategy to stay ahead of the regulatory curve and the evolution of greenwashing in America.

To learn more about greenwashing and how to avoid its pitfalls, come see Kevin live at GoGreen ’11 Phoenix, Tuesday, November 15! Kevin will give a special lunch presentation on the topic for attendees. Learn more about Kevin and Enviromedia at their website and the Greenwashing Index (created in partnership with the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication)

GoGreen Portland 2011 – Photoshoot!

The Pictures from GoGreen Portland 2011 are up and ready for your viewing pleasure! Thank you again to all of our sponsors, partners, exhibitors, and last but not least – our attendees! We couldn’t have done it without all of you there. Our fourth year in Portland reached new heights and we can’t wait to see what next year brings.