HDR Wins Practice Greenhealth’s Champion for Change Award

Practice Greenhealth, a national membership organization for healthcare facilities committed to environmentally responsible operations, presented its 2012 “Champion for Change” Award to HDR Architecture for outstanding environmental stewardship and protecting public health. Practice Greenhealth honored its top performers at the Environmental Excellence Awards presentation on May 2, 2012 in Denver, Colorado in conjunction with CleanMed, the premier global conference on environmentally sustainable health care.

The Champion for Change Award recognizes businesses and organizations that demonstrate successful accomplishments in ‘greening’ their own organizations and assisting healthcare clients to improve facilities’ environmental performance. “This award demonstrates HDR’s commitment to protect public health and preserve the environment,” says Laura Wenger, RN, executive director, Practice Greenhealth. “HDR is truly demonstrating leadership for the future of healthcare.”

The Champion for Change Award is reserved for organizational partners supplying healthcare products and services that are considerate of the earth and its resources and includes a donation on the winners’ behalf of mercury-free thermometers and sphygmomanometers to seven hospitals in Bali. These award winners have achieved success in greening their own organization and have also assisted others who are committed to improving their environmental performance. “HDR has many clients who request sustainable services,” says HDR’s Jean Hansen, sustainable interiors manager. “We are committed to implementing and deepening sustainable design principles not only to support our clients, but also to be good stewards of this planet that we call home.”

Recognizing the need for multi-disciplinary solutions, HDR created the Intelligent Facility Solutions (IFS) group, which brings together sustainable design, commissioning and energy services professionals. The firm has also implemented sustainable standards for all projects 50,000 square feet and larger. One of the basic tenets of the IFS group is transparency, which is especially important in the product industry. In fact, HDR professionals serve on the Pilot Program committee to support manufacturers developing the Health Product Declaration Open Standard draft. Additionally, HDR has gained significant experience in developing climate action-plans, greenhouse gas management and sustainability strategies and sponsored the “Greening the OR” initiative.