Enigin News

Enigin News

Enigin Update - Healthcare Benefits from Energy Efficiency Investments

ACCORDING to new research healthcare organisations are more likely to invest in energy efficiency for their facilities compared to other industry sectors.

According to PR Newswire in March American Society for Healthcare Engineering (ASHE), Johnstone Controlls and the International Facility Management Association (IFMA), commissioned the 2010 Energy Efficiency Indicator (EEI) survey, polling 2,882 managers and executives who are responsible for making investments and managing energy in facilities worldwide. Of these respondents, 288 operated in healthcare in North America.

The results - 58 percent of decision-makers for healthcare buildings stated that energy management was very or extremely important to their organisation, compared with 52 percent across all other sectors in North America. Sixty-two percent of healthcare organizations also plan to make capital investments in energy efficiency over the next 12 months, compared with only 52 percent overall.

Dale Woodin, executive director, ASHE stated:

"This year's survey shows that energy cost savings and enhanced brand image are important to our industry. In order to continue to serve our communities, my colleagues understand that we need to try to keep our costs down.”

The survey indicates that the healthcare sector has implemented a variety of measures to achieve energy efficiency including lighting retrofits (73%), adjustments to HVAC controls (57%) and installation of occupancy or daylight sensors (56%) .

A lack of capital budget is the main barrier to energy efficiency investments among 45 percent of healthcare respondents and 38 percent amongst the rest of North America’s organisations and businesses.

Woodin added that the return on investment in energy efficiency was important to healthcare decision makers:

"In light of the difficult credit environment, it comes as no surprise that our industry is playing close attention to ROI. From 2008 to 2010, the average maximum allowable payback for investments has dropped from 3.8 years to 3.4 years."

Enigin Distributors are armed with a quality selection of energy efficient solutions to help the healthcare sector to manage their energy use in real-time and then apply effective, intelligent energy saving technology to control and manage energy use.

Tuesday 13th July 2010