Kaiser Permanente going green with solar installations

Kaiser Permanente going green with solar installations Non-profit health care provider Kaiser Permanente announced last week that it plans to go green and cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2020 across all its operations, which include hospitals, doctors’ offices and more. The company is likely the first health care company in the U.S. that has made such a firm commitment to reducing its carbon footprint.

Among its other commitments, Kaiser will continue to install more solar throughout its network—it’s already installed 11 megawatts of solar-generation capacity at 11 of its facilities in California. And it is putting fuel cells at seven California facilities in 2012.

Kaiser said its work produced roughly 819,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions in 2008, which was its baseline year. That number rose to 837,000 metric tons in 2010. But under its new green program, the organization hope to reduce its annual emissions by 30 percent, to approximately 264,000 metric tons.

Among the reasons the company cited for going solar and reducing emissions was peoples’ health and economic considerations.

“Healthy communities and a healthy environment are critical to individual health and wellness,” said Kaiser spokesperson Susannah Patton. “Kaiser Permanente invests significant resources in programs that improve the health of our communities. By addressing air pollution and climate change, reducing the use of harmful chemicals and waste, and promoting sustainable food choices, Kaiser Permanente is taking deliberate steps toward reducing pollution and conditions that can harm health.”

The organization also found that reducing energy use and increasing its use of renewables also will reduce its operating costs, Patton said. While the majority of announced solar installations at this point will be in California, Kaiser is doing this throughout its territories, which include Washington, D.C., Maryland, Colorado and more.

And the company has partnered with Recurrent Energy and Indu, according to Patton.

“The developer Recurrent and Indu owns the panels and infrastructure,” she said. “Kaiser Permanente leases the underlying property to Recurrent Energy and Indu. Kaiser Permanente purchases all of the electric generation from these panels and pays the developer monthly and expects to do so over the lifetime of the 20-year contract.”