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Cleveland Clinic announced the establishment of a $7.5 million Green Revolving Fund (GRF) – the largest established fund of its kind in the healthcare industry – during the national Better Buildings Summit in Washington, D.C.
In addition to being the largest green revolving fund among U.S. healthcare systems, Cleveland Clinic’s $7.5 million annual commitment is one of the largest in any business sector nationally.
Green revolving funds invest in energy efficiency projects to reduce energy consumption while reinvesting the money saved into future projects. As projects pull money from the fund, it is replenished by reinvesting tracked savings from reduced energy consumption, in addition to any rebates received.
“The establishment of this fund strengthens Cleveland Clinic’s commitment to reducing our energy usage and serves as a catalyst for future projects to further reduce our impact on the environment,” said Jon Utech, senior director for Cleveland Clinic’s Office for a Healthy Environment. “As a leader in healthcare, we are continually looking for ways to improve the health of the communities we serve and reduce our operating costs in order to make care more affordable for our patients.”
This dedicated fund will help drive Cleveland Clinic’s continued commitment to energy conservation and overall sustainability, including the goal to reduce energy intensity by 20 percent by 2020 as part of President Obama’s Better Buildings Challenge. Through the end of 2015, Cleveland Clinic has reduced its energy demand by 12.3 percent as part of this challenge.
Several key components to Cleveland Clinic’s early success in the Better Buildings Challenge include: improving the energy efficiency of its existing buildings by optimizing building systems; making targeted reinvestments; utilizing ENERGY STAR-rated lighting appliances and equipment; implementing an industry-leading LED lighting retrofit strategy, as well as numerous other energy reduction projects and programs.
“We are honored to welcome Cleveland Clinic to the Billion Dollar Green Challenge and are excited about their commitment to developing the largest green revolving fund in the healthcare field,” said Mark Orlowski, Executive Director of the Sustainable Endowments Institute. “We’re enthusiastic that more hospitals will follow their leading example and commit to investing in deeper building energy efficiency through self-managed green revolving funds to reap significant financial and environmental benefits.”
The establishment of the green fund is part of the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s Billion Dollar Green Challenge. The challenge encourages colleges, universities, and other nonprofit institutions to invest in self-managed green revolving funds, with the goal of creating a combined total of one billion dollars in funding.
To date, 57 institutions have committed a total of $117 million to energy efficiency upgrades by developing green revolving funds as part of the Billion Dollar Green Challenge.
For more information on Cleveland Clinic’s energy conservation and sustainability efforts, visit http://www.clevelandclinic.org/sustainability.
For more information on the Sustainable Endowments Institute’s Billion Dollar Green Challenge, visit http://greenbillion.org/.
About Cleveland Clinic
Cleveland Clinic is a nonprofit multispecialty academic medical center that integrates clinical and hospital care with research and education. Located in Cleveland, Ohio, it was founded in 1921 by four renowned physicians with a vision of providing outstanding patient care based upon the principles of cooperation, compassion and innovation. Cleveland Clinic has pioneered many medical breakthroughs, including coronary artery bypass surgery and the first face transplant in the United States. U.S.News & World Report consistently names Cleveland Clinic as one of the nation’s best hospitals in its annual “America’s Best Hospitals” survey. Among Cleveland Clinic’s 49,000 employees are more than 3,400 full-time salaried physicians and researchers and 14,000 nurses, representing 120 medical specialties and subspecialties. The Cleveland Clinic health system includes a 165-acre main campus near downtown Cleveland, nine community hospitals, more than 150 northern Ohio outpatient locations – including 18 full-service family health centers and three health and wellness centers – and locations in Weston, Fla.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Toronto, Canada; Abu Dhabi, UAE; and London, England. In 2015, there were 6.6 million outpatient visits, 164,700 hospital admissions and 208,807 surgical cases throughout the Cleveland Clinic health system. Patients came for treatment from every state and 180 countries. Visit us at www.clevelandclinic.org. Follow us at www.twitter.com/ClevelandClinic.
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