Public Tools
A wide range of online tools are publicly available to support your decarbonization efforts, especially when it comes to measuring and modeling your facility’s energy/emissions profile and broader environmental impacts. However, most in-depth analysis tools require a one-time purchase or yearly subscription. That said there are various free resources and tools available (most notably Energy Star Portfolio Manager) that can assist you in modeling energy efficiency ratings and usage trends.
In addition to this, there are also several sites with information tailored specifically to hospitals and healthcare facilities that should provide a strong resource foundation to begin implementing sustainable practices without compromising your institution’s strict regulatory and safety requirements.
This page contains a comprehensive list of these tools, categorized according to the Planning Process Step where they will be most useful to you and your team.
Step 1: Designate a Leader (Director) Tools.
Step 2: Understand the Regulatory Landscape Tools.
Step 3: Establish your Baselines Tools.
✅ GHG Inventory Development Process and Guidance
The EPA provides a thorough and highly useful protocol for inventorying greenhouse gas emissions through the Center for Corporate Client Leadership. The tool is based on a four-step process that covers standards and methods, data collection, mitigation plan development, and reporting. The EPA GHG Inventory Development Process and Guidance can be found here.
✅ The Energy to Care Dashboard Tool
A popular tool for hospitals, ASHE’s Energy to Care Dashboard Tool is an easy-to-use benchmarking and monitoring tool that provides an at-a-glance view of your facility’s energy use. Designed to deliver comprehensive monitoring with a time investments of roughly 15 minutes a day, The Energy to Care Dashboard Tool combines a clean and simple interface with powerful features including ENERGY STAR® data options, energy and cost data widgets, and utility bill fault detection.
✅ The Practice Greenhealth Network Benchmark Tool
Practice Greenhealth Network is an organization dedicated to the goal of sustainable health care. It specializes in helping hospitals find opportunities to implement sustainable programs and helps them tracks their progress. Practice Greenhealth provides a sustainability benchmark tool exclusively to members of its network. The tool requires payment for usage.
✅ The Practice Greenhealth Network Calculator
This tool is available to users of the Practice Greenhealth Network and those of Healthcare Without Harm. It allows users to enter information about their electricity use, thermal energy use, and emissions. The calculator then converts the information into impact estimates on community health and wellness. The estimates cover factors ranging from illness and early mortality to missed workdays and other effects. The calculator will estimate using regionally appropriate factors if the user enters their geographic information.
✅ ECO-Ill Energy Conservation in Hospitals
These guidelines, which resulted from a joint initiative by the US Government and the Government of India, provide benchmarking tools for energy systems as well as tools to help builders estimate the efficiency gains from more efficient building designs.
All HVAC systems in current use fall into one of four categories. Those categories are Air-to-Air, Air-to-Water, Water-to-Water, and Water-to-Air. Each has its own unique architecture and set of system components.
Step 4: Gather your Team Tools.
A RACI matrix is a tool to help clarify roles, responsibilities, and relationships and ensure clear communication as well as smooth and streamlined workflows. It is designed to help ensure that the right individuals/teams are connected to and consulted during the appropriate times throughout the strategy implementation process.
Step 5: Set Vision & Map Strategy Tools.
This multi-page spreadsheet will allow you to enter your list of potential projects, weight their importance, score them according to various criteria, assess their financial impact, and even create preliminary budgets for them. In short, it contains everything you need to create a realistic and actionable strategic plan.
This publication series is designed to help larger hospitals achieve energy savings that exceed minimum code requirements of ANSI/ASHRAE/IES Standard 90.1. For hospitals seeking to achieve a net-zero building (a building that annually draws an equal or lesser amount of energy from outside sources than it consumes) this guide is an excellent first step.
This publication is intended as a starting point, a precursor to a larger and more comprehensive clean energy strategy. For hospitals who are interested in issues such as integrating environmental concerns into the definition of healthcare value, moving to a circular economy, and expanding preventive models of care, it is an excellent primer.
The ASHE Energy To Care Tool Kit
This publication contains resources designed to help organizations cut energy consumption and get more out of the Energy to Care program.
The ASHE Sustainability Tool Kit
For hospitals looking for a step-by-step guide to creating and implementing a sustainability program — either a new program or one that may already be underway — this guide is a helpful resource.
US Department of Health and Human Services Resources Page
Health and Human Services serves as a national hub for information on climate change and health policy. On this page you’ll find a range of federal resources designed to help organizations reduce climate change and its impact on the health of the American people.
Large Hospital 50% Energy Savings: Technical Support Document
This document was created by the Commercial Buildings Group at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). It is a technical document that provides guidance and modeling methods for hospitals seeking to achieve whole-building energy reductions of 50% or more over existing standards (ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004).
The Healthcare Without Harm Website
A resource repository of materials created to advance the goal of transforming healthcare worldwide, this web page contains a wealth of information on reducing carbon footprints, and environmental health and justice.
Healthcare Environmental Resource Center (HERC)
HERC is an organization devoted to pollution prevention and the reduction of hospital waste. This website is a comprehensive resource for compliance information, both federal and state, for hospitals, dental practices, and assisted living and nursing care facilities.
The Advanced Energy Retrofit Guide for Healthcare Facilities
This publication is part of a series of retrofit guides that have been published by the Department of Energy. For those seeking guidance on performance improvement, project planning, financial payback metrics, and energy efficiency measures (EEMs), this guide is an invaluable resource.
US Environmental Protection Agency – E3 Energy Efficiency Tools
E3 is a technical assistance resource that spans six different agencies of the federal government. It was originally formed in 2009 for the purpose of advancing sustainability goals while also revitalizing the economy. The site contains at least 8 different tools and resources, all designed to help stakeholders and assessment teams to improve in different areas.
Step 6: Secure Funding Tools.
Step 7: Implement Tools.
LEED Certification: Applying LEED To Healthcare Projects
Not an energy benchmarking tool per se, this site contains checklists/guidelines to help you achieve higher building energy efficiency and reduce carbon emissions in alignment with the LEED Rating System. By incorporating the recommended sustainability measures and meeting the certification criteria, healthcare facilities can significantly conserve energy and water, minimize waste, and actively contribute to emission reductions through special guidelines that adhere to the unique operational requirements for healthcare facilities.
Step 8: Measure & Verify Tools.
M&V Guidelines: Measurement and Verification for Performance-Based Contracts Version 4.0
This document contains procedures and guidelines to help organizations quantify the savings that result from the installation of energy efficient equipment, water conservation efforts, operations and maintenance improvements, renewable energy initiatives, and cogeneration projects conducted under performance-based contracts.
Guidebook for Energy Efficiency Evaluation, Measurement, and Verification
Developed by the EPA’s State and Local Energy and Environment Program, this guide helps homeowners, businesses, and other organizations confirm that their energy efficiency programs are resulting in the expected levels of energy savings, and ensure their quantification and verification approaches are well-documented, rigorous, and consistently applied.
Evaluation, Measurement & Verification Guidance
This document was created to provide guidance to utilities, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), and other evaluators on the proper way to conduct evaluation, measurement and verification (EM&V) activities associated with ratepayer-funded clean energy programs.