Key messages
- New healthcare facilities and major redevelopments need to aim for best practice in environmental sustainability.
- There is strong evidence that a healthy hospital building leads to better patient outcomes and greater staff productivity.
The Victorian Government invests substantially in upgrading and building new healthcare facilities. This ranges from significant new builds, such as the new Bendigo Hospital, to minor refurbishment and redevelopment projects.
The guidelines for sustainability in healthcare capital works require all healthcare capital works delivered to:
- agree to design and sustainability principles with all stakeholders during master planning
- appoint sustainability consultants on all projects over $15 million
- implement 80 standard sustainability initiatives on all projects
- allocate up to 2.5 per cent of the total construction cost to leading sustainability initiatives
- benchmark performance against GreenStar
- sustainability updates informing health services on sustainability initiatives and issues of interest
- case studies on sustainability initiatives to assist health services
- guidelines and guidance notes on sustainability in the healthcare sector.
New facilities and developments
There is strong evidence that a healthy hospital building leads to better patient outcomes and greater staff productivity. The Alexandra District Hospital longitudinal study contributes to a larger collection of research that supports this contention.
Investing in a high-quality indoor environment in all hospital areas is strongly supported by the department.
It is expected that all new facilities and major redevelopments aim for a best practice level of performance against GreenStar Healthcare, using a self-assessment model. Resources on sustainability has more information.
Resources
The following resources developed by the department are available for health services:
- sustainability updates informing health services on sustainability initiatives and issues of interest
- videos about the importance of sustainability within the healthcare system
- case studies on sustainability initiatives to assist health services
- guidelines and guidance notes on sustainability in the healthcare sector.
Reviewed 26 September 2022
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Contact details
For advice and support about environmental sustainability in healthcare provision.
Climate Change and Environment team, Health Infrastructure Department of Health