Recently Steve Langston AIA, ACHA, EDAC, LEED BD+C, of RLF – a leading Winter Park-based architecture, engineering and interior design firm – served as one of four featured panelists who discussed the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) newly unveiled green building rating system: LEED for Healthcare.
This dialogue was one of the first in-depth explorations of the LEED for Healthcare rating system, and focused on the unique challenges of implementing LEED in a healthcare setting as well as a comparison between the new healthcare rating system and the current LEED tools.
The rating system, which was introduced in April 2011, guides the design and construction of both new buildings and renovations of existing buildings, and can be applied to inpatient, outpatient and licensed long-term care facilities, medical offices, assisted living facilities and medical education and research centers.
“Healthcare facilities have a big impact on the environment, and are highly regulated with a number of rules and regulations due to their complexity and hazards. The existing LEED system was based on a simple office building that operated eight hours a day, five days a week,” said Langston. “The new LEED for Healthcare rating system is designed to provide a fairer way to evaluate hospitals and other healthcare facilities that are in continuous operations. These kind of cross-discipline discussions help us all learn and grow within the new system.”
