One of Parkview’s 10 Guiding Principles for the design of the Parkview Regional Medical Center is to "Embrace our Community and the Environment" and to pursue sustainability within our budgetary constraints. Here are some examples of how we are incorporating the green approach to the development of the Parkview Regional Medical Center:
- Our site design includes a water control/filtration system of rain gardens, dry basins and bioswales with natural plantings that provide filtration of storm water and allow a higher proportion of the storm water to return to the water table rather than flow downstream. Water collected in the pond at the Parkview Family Park pond is used for landscaping.
- The combination of energy efficient boilers and chillers with state-of-the-art building control systems will reduce the energy load for heating and cooling the facility.
- Energy efficient window systems will provide abundant daylight views in the patient care and public areas.
- We are recycling construction materials from the site. For example, the asphalt millings from the parking lots that have been removed were used in roads elsewhere on the site. And, we are using recycled materials and other "green" products throughout the project. Where possible, we are using low/no VOC emitting products, and we have limited the amount of petroleum-based products used in construction.
- Underground parking structures reduce the surface area of parking lots, which allows us to maintain more green space on the campus. Additionally, we will plant more than 3,500 new trees, and we have expanded the size of the Parkview Family Park to create more green space.
- We are exploring opportunities for green technologies, such as solar powered lighting on exterior directional signage.
- Electric automobile charging connections will be available.
- We did consider using a geothermal system for all or part of the heating and cooling. Our project engineer determined that this is not a viable option due to the constraints of the physical site and the requirements of a hospital facility of this size. We do continue to search for other green opportunities.