The ENERGY STAR Health Care Energy Leadership Program (HELP) was established to help hospitals and long-term care facilities find energy reduction opportunities. A joint initiative of My Sustainable Canada and the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care, the program provides participating institutions with: educational webinars; onsite ENERGY STAR training and Spot the ENERGY STAR Opportunities; walk throughs at host sites of green health care training; sample ENERGY STAR procurement language to incorporate into your request for proposals; training on the ENERGY STAR Savings Calculators to help you build the business case for ENERGY STAR upgrades; access to a national peer-to-peer network of other energy efficiency leaders in the health care sector; and assistance with the ENERGY STAR Participant application. As part of the program, participating institutions will provide input for NRCan’s Annual ENERGY STAR Survey and educate their staff on using the ENERGY STAR symbol with training materials supplied by NRCan. The first facility to join the ENERGY STAR HELP initiative was The Ottawa Hospital. “We recognized that by joining we would have an incentive to better embrace energy efficiency throughout our sites and make it a much bigger element in our overall corporate planning and redevelopment strategy,” said Jessica Heiss, The Ottawa Hospital’s coordinator, sustainability and building integration. My Sustainable Canada is a not-for-profit organization that promotes sustainable consumption and encourages Canadians to be informed, conscientious consumers. The Coalition’s membership comprises Canadian hospitals and health care facilities, nongovernmental organizations, and business associates.
