Designing the 21st Century Hospital

Designing the 21st Century Hospital is a webinar presentation of basic green design and evidence-based design concepts and case studies examining their use in healthcare facilities.

How is sustainable design and ecological thinking impacting the healthcare industry? This webinar examines initiatives, ranging from reducing waste to constructing “green” buildings; from healthier food to reducing toxic chemicals. Drawing on a series of six white papers published by The Center for Health Design and Health Care Without Harm and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Laura Brannen and Robin Guenther present summaries and discuss the big ideas around environmental responsibility.  This presentation also covers:

• Preventative Medicine for the Environment: Developing and Implementing Environmental Programs That Work
• Leading by Example: Recreating a Food System that Values Health
• Values Driven Design and Construction: Enriching Community Benefit through Green Hospitals
• Creating Safe and Healthy Spaces: Selecting Materials that support Healing

With climate change issues moving into mainstream design and policy venues, healthcare, as the second most energy intensive building sector, will be under increasing scrutiny to reduce its ecological footprint. Learn what leaders are already doing — and get introduced to the most important and vibrant construction and operations trend of the decade.

• Gain an understanding of the breadth of sustainable design and operations in healthcare
• Learn about resources and tools available to assist organizations in implementing these ideas
• Understand organizational implications of undertaking sustainable construction and operational initiatives
• Find out what other healthcare organizations that are engaged in this work are doing

About the Speakers

Laura Brannen is the executive director for the Hospitals for a Healthy Environment or "H2E" program—a national program designed to move the healthcare sector towards providing healthcare in a manner that reduces it's potentially significant impacts on environmental and human health.

Laura has been working in the health care environmental programs field for 20 years. She started her career at Mass General in Environmental Services then moved to New Hampshire and worked at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center for 10 years as the Environmental Programs Coordinator. She's been with H2E since 2001 and is a nationally recognized speaker and leader in making change towards environmental sustainability in healthcare.

Robin Guenther, FAIA, is principal of Guenther 5 Architects, a 20-person New York City healthcare firm. Her work has been published nationally and internationally in magazines such as The Architectural Review, Interior Design, Contract, Architectural Record, and Healthcare Design. Her project, the Discovery Health Center, was the first Diagnostic and treatment building to achieve LEED certification in 2004.