Articles
9 February 2012

Ogden Orthopedic Surgeons Take the \'LEED\' in Environmental Sustainability

by PR or News Wire

09 February 2012—

The new Utah Orthopaedics building located at 5782 Adams Avenue Parkway was built to be a “green” building. The newly built structure will have a LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold level certification. This means that the entire building and landscaping surrounding the building, is environmentally friendly.

 

An open house for medical professionals, community leaders, and the media will be held September 8th, 2010 at 5:30 p.m. to celebrate the opening. There will be a ribbon cutting ceremony and a tour of the new building.

 

 The theme of the building is “Do No Harm,” said Dr. Dan Byck. “When we take the Hippocratic oath as a physician we take an oath to do no harm.  We felt it was very important to extend that to our patients who are coming to see us in our new building. So we decided to build a building that is environmentally sound. . Not only are we staffed with physicians who are experts in our field, but we have also created a unique healing environment for our patients and a bright, healthy environment for our employees,” he added.

 

The gold level certification is the second highest certification awarded by the U.S. Green Building Council. The level of certification awarded is measured according to a building’s “energy savings, water efficiency, CO2 emissions reduction, improved indoor environmental quality, and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts,” according to the council.

  

The new Utah Orthopedics building uses energy and water efficient appliances, plumbing, heating and cooling systems, and landscaping. The new building was also built at a certain angle to let in more natural light. When more natural light shines through the windows, the artificial lights will dim.

 

Dr. Jeffrey Rocco explained that Utah Orthopedics will also be taking other measures to reduce their impact on the environment.

 

“We are using electronic medical records in the new facility to eliminate the majority of paper consumed by medical record keeping. We also plan on using digital X-ray. Digital X-ray will reduce by half the amount of ionizing radiation imparted to our patients and released into the atmosphere. Digital X-ray will also require no water for processing and will eliminate about 700,000 gallons of contaminated water per year from the sewer system,” Rocco said.

 

Dr. Byck said that not only do they want to reduce their impact on the environment, but they want to provide a better workplace for their patients and staff.

 

 “We want to provide a cleaner and safer place for our employees to work and for our patients. There is natural light in all the living spaces, the air is refreshed several times a day, the furniture, paint, and carpeting is free of volatile chemicals, and most of the materials were purchased within 500 miles to reduce our carbon footprint,” added Dr. Byck.  


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