An Energy to Care Treasure Hunt at the University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC) was part of an effort to cut energy consumption by 20 percent by 2022, according to Health Facilities Maintenance.
The July 2019 hunt produced a list of no-cost and low-cost measures that could yield over $2 million of energy savings.
The larger goal of the treasure hunts is to give participants the skills, knowledge and tools to take on energy savings initiatives in their own organizations, according to Kara Brooks, sustainability program manager at ASHE.
A treasure hunt takes about six to eight weeks to organize. For the UMMC event, the ASHE team gathered and analyzed detailed data and information about the facility’s energy use performance, infrastructure, equipment and building systems.
Hospitals are second only to food service buildings for energy use per square foot in the commercial sector, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Cathryn Jakicic is healthcare industries editor of FacilitiesNet.com. For more information on hospital campuses and other medical facilities, click here.
