Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) and former President Bill Clinton’s Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) have teamed up for a new program that will help hospitals and healthcare facilities located in Chicago, IL reduce their carbon footprint as well as conserve energy.
According to HCHW, which was formed in 1996 to lobby health care providers to "eliminate practices that harm people and the environment" according to its website, hospitals and healthcare facilities use more than 73 trillion kilowatts of electricity every year, making it the second most energy intensive commercial sector of the U.S. economy.
The CCI, which was founded by the William J. Clinton Foundation to create solutions for climate change by increasing cities’ energy efficiency, develop clean energies, stop deforestation, has initiated the retro-fitting of over 250 buildings worldwide to make them more energy efficient since its inception.
Now working together, Chicago hospitals and healthcare facilities that are affiliated HCWH will have access to CCI-affiliated global energy service companies that will help streamline their energy acquirement processes. The facilities will also have access to energy trackers, as well as discounts on building technologies such as reflective roofing and solar control window film, to lessen their annual energy consumption and carbon footprint.
"Healthcare is 16 percent of the GDP and the one sector of the economy focused on health. Hospitals can play a critical role in protecting our communities from climate related disease as well as be a driver for the green energy economy of the 21st century," said Gary Cohen, HCWH’s executive director. "We are extremely pleased to partner with the Clinton Climate Initiative to facilitate the transfer of energy saving technology to health care institutions nationally and worldwide."
While the initiative will begin in Chicago, Cohen added that both organizations hoped to "rapidly expand" the project and begin similar projects in hospitals and healthcare facilities in other cities as well.