Advancing Sustainability

Riverside Healthcare is committed to the ongoing reduction of its carbon footprint.

Riverside’s facilities team manages more than 2 million square feet of medical facilities across a 60-mile service area. System-wide efforts to improve its regional carbon footprint began earnestly in 2010 with the completion of a new 160,000 square foot hospital patient tower; complete with 13 state-of-the-art operating room suites. In the next five years, over 20 facilities would see energy efficiency improvements as the health system moved from incandescent and metal halide lighting to compact fluorescent lamp and LED technology. Retro-commissioning studies in 2013 and 2014 reviewed system performance for efficiency outputs. System audits include battery, refrigeration, data center, facet and water aeration, signage, heat, and ventilation evaluations. Improvements were addressed through Riverside’s annual capital budget process for planned maintenance, innovation, and operational improvements. New construction projects in Bradley, Bourbonnais, Kankakee, Frankfort, and Watseka included energy consultants in planning from Grumman/Butkus Associates, TerraLocke, and The Energy Center of Wisconsin to align design and system selection with LEED certification strategies.

Since 2016, over 40 health system projects, including supply chain and waste management, have been advanced using lean healthcare quality principles. Lean projects look for eight types of system waste including overproduction, motion, defects, waiting, excess processing, inventory, non-utilized talent, and transportation.

In 2020, Riverside operationalized a new utility plant, built to Energy Star standards which protects the environment by generating fewer greenhouse gas emissions. The plant replaced the 55-year-old heating elements. The new system takes advantage of advanced practices with automation control capabilities and recycles 85% of hospital water usage. Throughout 2021-2022, Riverside is measuring operational metrics for the new utility plant with a goal to secure facility LEED certification. LEED certification is attainable if measures perform better than 75% of systems in similar building sizes nationwide. Riverside operates a cogen electrical power system. It is annually tested for quality air emissions & Illinois Environmental Protection Agency compliance. The utility plant and Riverside’s director of facilities and engineering, Jonathan Overacker, were recently featured by Blueprint Magazine showcasing the utility plant’s advancement of hot and cold technology, pandemic preparation, and advancing industry standards.

Riverside annually participates in Grumman/Butkus’ Hospital Energy and Water Survey This tool measures and benchmarks 125 hospitals to each other on their carbon footprint metrics related to cost, consumption volume, and operational square footage. Outcomes results are annually used as a baseline to continue to advance best practices linked to decreasing the hospital’s carbon footprint.