Mercy Medical Center Earns the ENERGY STAR® for Superior Energy Efficiency
06 / 07 / 2010
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Maria Nelson, Media Relations
Affinity Health System
(920) 720-1752
(920) 554-0686 (pager)
OSHKOSH, Wis. - Mercy Medical Center, part of Affinity Health System, has earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) prestigious ENERGY STAR, the national symbol for superior energy efficiency and environmental protection. This signifies that the building’s energy performance rates in the top 25 percent of facilities nationwide.
Mercy Medical Center joins St. Elizabeth Hospital as the only two hospitals in the state of Wisconsin to receive the award. Both hospitals are part of Affinity Health System.
"Affinity Health System is pleased to have two of its entities recognized by this prestigious award,” said Gary Kusnierz, vice president Performance Excellence, Affinity Health System. "We’re extremely proud of being the only two hospitals in the state to currently hold this environmental award. Through our mission as a Catholic health care provider we’re committed to being stewards of all of our resources and are proud to see the result of these efforts.”
Commercial buildings that earn the ENERGY STAR use an average of 35 percent less energy than typical buildings and also release 35 percent less carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Affinity Health System improved its energy performance by managing energy strategically across the entire organization and by making cost-effective improvements to its buildings. Mercy Medical Center has experienced an annual savings of $129,000 due to energy savings.
To earn the ENERGY STAR, Mercy Medical Center took the following actions:
- Promotes a culture of continuous improvement on all facility infrastructure operations
- Continues to identify measures of success that will improve energy usage
- Replaced an inefficient dishwasher that consumed high amounts of water with an energy efficient dishwasher
- Installed state of the art boiler controls that allow the boilers to run at maximum efficiency
- Installed a feedwater economizer that maximizes the efficiency by using the exhaust gases from the boiler to preheat the cold water used to fill it
EPA’s national energy performance rating system provides a 1-100 scale that helps organizations assess how efficiently their buildings use energy relative to similar buildings nationwide. A building that scores a rating of 75 or higher is eligible for the ENERGY STAR. Commercial buildings that can earn the ENERGY STAR include offices, bank branches, financial centers, retail stores, courthouses, hospitals, hotels, K-12 schools, medical offices, supermarkets, dormitories, and warehouses.
ENERGY STAR was introduced by EPA in 1992 as a voluntary, market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency. Today, the ENERGY STAR label can be found on more than 60 different kinds of products, new homes, and commercial and industrial buildings. Products and buildings that have earned the ENERGY STAR designation prevent greenhouse gas emissions by meeting strict energy-efficiency specifications set by the government. Last year alone, Americans, with the help of ENERGY STAR, saved about $19 billion on their energy bills while reducing the greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those of 29 million vehicles.
For more information about ENERGY STAR visit www.energystar.gov.
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For the Editor:
Affinity Health System, a faith-based regional health care network, is the Fox Valley’s second-largest employer, according to the Fox Cities Chamber of Commerce & Industry. For the fourth consecutive year, Affinity has been named one of the nation’s top 64 health systems based on clinical performance according to Thomson Reuters, a leading provider of information and solutions to improve the cost and quality of health care. For ten consecutive years, Affinity Health System has been named to the SDI (formerly Verispan) Integrated Health Network Top 100, an annual assessment of the 100 most highly integrated health care networks in the nation. Both St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton and Mercy Medical Center in Oshkosh rank among the top 1 percent of hospitals nationwide in terms of quality and efficiency, as determined by the 2007 Premier | CareScience Select practice National Quality Award. Members of Affinity include Mercy Medical Center and Mercy Health Foundation, Oshkosh; St. Elizabeth Hospital and the St. Elizabeth Hospital Foundation, Appleton; Affinity Medical Group, a regional network of 25 family practice and specialty clinics – 22 of which are recognized as NCQA Level III medical homes, the highest level of recognition – in 14 communities; Calumet Medical Center, Chilton; and Affinity Occupational Health.