Health Care Facilities on the Right Track to Improve Sustainability

DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Johns Manville (JM), a leading manufacturer of building and engineered products, today announced it is a sponsor of The McGraw-Hill Construction Health Care Green Building SmartMarket™ Report, which highlights the unique “green” issues relevant to health care facilities. The report, available June 18, reveals that sustainable design and construction is tied more closely to the existing needs and goals of health care facilities than for other building types, such as office buildings or stadiums.

“The McKinsey Quarterly’s recent study, ‘A Cost Curve for Greenhouse Gas Reduction,’ identified the single most cost-effective measure for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is improved building insulation”

“The definition of ‘green’ or sustainable construction has significantly broadened in recent years, primarily as a result of the LEED^® green building rating system from the U.S. Green Building Council, and the Green Guide for Health Care™ program,” said John Calder, health care design specialist with Johns Manville. “For health care facilities, green now includes increasing a building’s durability to reduce maintenance and component replacement, and improve the facility’s impact on people. Facility managers need to be concerned about improving thermal and acoustic comfort, and reducing exposure to formaldehyde. These green building elements are closely aligned with the drive to improve patient care and cut health care costs.”

Green building rating systems today evaluate the facility’s impact on the surrounding site, the efficient use of water and natural resources, as well as harmful chemical and gas emissions. Increasingly, green building rating systems focus on these issues during the building’s operation, not just during construction.

The SmartMarket report found that enhancing staff and patient health and well-being is the top reason that health care facility managers are pursuing green building techniques. It also cited that 79 percent of respondents indicated that climate change is real, and 69 percent felt an obligation to reduce new construction’s impact on global warming.

“The McKinsey Quarterly’s recent study, ‘A Cost Curve for Greenhouse Gas Reduction,’ identified the single most cost-effective measure for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is improved building insulation,” said Tim Carey, JM senior manager for environmental and stewardship programs. “We believe that health care facility managers who focus on green building practices without first focusing on energy efficiency are doing so to the detriment of the environment and their own bottom line.”

“According to the report, the key obstacle to building green health care facilities is a lack of knowledge about green building techniques,” added J.R. Babineau, leader for acoustics and indoor environmental quality for Johns Manville’s Building Science team. “Health care decision makers have been driving the principles of evidence-based design to improve patient quality of care for years. These same principles can be employed to identify and drive sustainable building practices.”

As an example, Babineau cited formaldehyde, which has been identified in a major medical journal as a contributor to building-related illnesses. He said that health care architects still are specifying third-party “green certification” programs that allow products to emit measurable formaldehyde that can be inhaled by patients and workers.

McGraw Hill Construction will release The Health Care Green Building SmartMarket™ Report on June 18, 2007. For more information or to order a copy, visit www.analyticsstore.construction.com, e-mail construction_intelligence@mcgraw-hill.com or call 800-591-4462.

About Johns Manville

Johns Manville, a Berkshire Hathaway company (NYSE: BRK.A, BRK.B), is a leading manufacturer and marketer of premium-quality building and specialty products. In business since 1858, the Denver-based company has annual sales in excess of $2.5 billion and holds leadership positions in all of the key markets that it serves. Johns Manville employs approximately 8,500 people and operates 43 manufacturing facilities in North America, Europe and China. Additional information can be found at www.jm.com.