Atrium Health Earns 2022 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award
Atrium Health sets bar with fifth straight year of recognition by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
CHARLOTTE, N.C., May 5, 2022 – Atrium Health has received the 2022 ENERGY STAR® Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Energy. Award winners in the annual program were announced today. It is the fifth consecutive year Atrium Health has been recognized by the EPA for its energy efficiency programs.
“It is very exciting to be recognized again, for the fifth year in a row, as a national leader in health care energy performance,” said Michael Roberts, director of enterprise energy services for Atrium Health. “This recognition showcases Atrium Health’s continued pursuit of operational excellence and environmental stewardship. We know human health and environmental health are connected, so this is an important part of our mission to improve health, elevate hope and advance healing – for all.”
Atrium Health has been involved with the ENERGY STAR Partnership for more than nine years, becoming an ENERGY STAR Partner in 2013, an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year in 2018 and 2019, and a Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence in 2020, 2021 and 2022. Atrium Health is one of only two health systems to receive this highly coveted designation for two or more consecutive years.
Atrium Health began its energy efficiency journey in 2012, setting a goal to achieve a 20% energy reduction over five years. Since then, the organization has invested over $12.5 million in energy efficiency projects, such as lighting retrofits and efficient temperature regulation control strategies in operating suites. Atrium Health met its 20% goal and has now surpassed a 30% reduction from the 2012 baseline.
“Employees are key to any organization’s energy reduction efforts,” said Jennifer Sellers, director of environmental sustainability for Atrium Health’s facilities management group. “At Atrium Health, we’ve been working closely with employees at all levels to encourage energy efficiency, even during the height of the pandemic.”
Atrium Health teammates have developed quarterly virtual Green Tea Chats, in which over 170 sustainability champions within the organization meet to collaborate on energy savings and other sustainability best practices at their facilities and boost engagement.
“The 2022 ENERGY STAR award-winning partners are demonstrating what it takes to build a more sustainable future,” said EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan. “These companies are showing once again that taking action in support of a clean energy economy can be good not only for the environment, but also for business and customers.”
Each year, the ENERGY STAR program honors a group of businesses and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting the environment through superior energy achievements. ENERGY STAR award winners lead their industries in the production, sale and adoption of energy-efficient products, homes, buildings, services and strategies. These efforts are essential to addressing climate change and protecting public health.
For more information, visit Atrium Health’s environmental sustainability page.
About Atrium Health
Atrium Health is a nationally recognized leader in shaping health outcomes through innovative research, education and compassionate patient care. Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Atrium Health is an integrated, nonprofit health system with more than 70,000 teammates serving patients at 40 hospitals and more than 1,400 care locations. It provides care under the Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist name in the Winston-Salem, North Carolina, region, as well as Atrium Health Navicent and Atrium Health Floyd in Georgia and Alabama. Atrium Health is renowned for its top-ranked pediatric, cancer and heart care, as well as organ transplants, burn treatments and specialized musculoskeletal programs. A recognized leader in experiential medical education and groundbreaking research, Wake Forest University School of Medicine is the academic core of the enterprise, including Wake Forest Innovations, which is advancing new medical technologies and biomedical discoveries. Atrium Health is also a leading-edge innovator in virtual care and mobile medicine, providing care close to home and in the home. Ranked nationally among U.S. News & World Report’s Best Hospitals in eight pediatric specialties and for rehabilitation, Atrium Health has also received the American Hospital Association’s Quest for Quality Prize and its 2021 Carolyn Boone Lewis Equity of Care Award, as well as the 2020 Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Health Equity Award for its efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in care. With a commitment to every community it serves, Atrium Health seeks to improve health, elevate hope and advance healing – for all, providing more than $2 billion per year in free and uncompensated care and other community benefits.
About ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR® is the government-backed symbol for energy efficiency, providing simple, credible, and unbiased information that consumers and businesses rely on to make well-informed decisions. Thousands of industrial, commercial, utility, state, and local organizations—including more than 40 percent of the Fortune 500®—rely on their partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deliver cost-saving energy efficiency solutions. Since 1992, ENERGY STAR and its partners helped American families and businesses avoid more than $500 billion in energy costs and achieve more than 4 billion metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions. More background information about ENERGY STAR’s impacts can be found at www.energystar.gov/impacts and state-level information can be found at www.energystar.gov/statefacts.