The Growth Will Be Green

In both educational and healthcare facilities, tough financial times have not seen any trade-off in demand for sustainability. In fact, in both new construction and renovation projects, reduced energy use and overall sustainability are becoming even more of a priority, and the “green share” of nonresidential construction is growing rapidly. In 2005, it was about 2 percent of the market. By the end of 2012, it is expected to reach 44 percent, and 48-55 percent by 2016.

Education Construction

In education construction, the “green” growth is even more remarkable, accounting for about 45 percent of activity, but many experts predict that by 2025, all new school construction will be green. From 2008 to 2011 many states set standards requiring new schools to be green, and school districts have found that this pays off in terms of energy expenditure and the performance and well-being of students and teachers. Numerous organizations have programs dedicated to green and high-performance schools, and many effective and popular programs have been established, including the Collaborative for High Performance Schools, the 21st Century School Fund, and the U.S. Department of Energy's Green Ribbon Schools, just to name a few.

The highest use of Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design® (LEED) (as well as Energy Star) is in dorms, education, and public buildings. In higher education, many major universities have announced they will require LEED certification in new construction. Education in general is an area where sustainability is a particularly high priority. Sustainability and “saving the planet” are now part of the curriculum and consciousness of kids and parents starting in grade school, so they expect their schools to be green.

Healthcare Construction

Healthcare construction has also shown strong “green” growth. In 2012 despite a drop in overall construction activity, the green share of healthcare construction increased 25 percent. The government has been one major driver, requiring sustainability as new veterans' and military hospitals are built. In healthcare facilities, always highly energy-intensive, major cost savings are achievable through reducing energy use, eliminating waste, and reducing infections. But sustainability is also an integral part of a move towards healthier, more holistic, healing-centered environments. The emphasis on sustainability is reflected in rating efforts such as LEED for Health and the Green Guide for Health Care, and industry initiatives such as the Sustainability Roadmap, Practice Greenhealth, and many others.

Focus on the Floor

However diverse all these new and renovated spaces will be, they are all going to need floors. The choice of flooring in both healthcare and educational facilities can have a surprisingly far-reaching impact on the success of the work going on inside the buildings, and on the larger environment as well. Noisy, hard, cheap surfaces that are difficult to keep clean and require frequent replacement are a fact of life in many older facilities. Spaces designed today can benefit from a substantial and growing body of evidence demonstrating the strong, direct connection between the quality of the surroundings and the success of the outcomes.

For example, a 2004 study, sponsored by the Center for Health Design and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, reviewed more than 600 studies documenting the effects of the environment on overall healthcare quality, including key factors such as staff stress and fatigue, effective care delivery, patient safety, patient stress, and other outcomes. These and other recent studies show that environmental factors like noise, glare, and poor air quality can create stress that can be measured in real terms like increased heart rate and blood pressure and reduced oxygen levels in the blood. When good design and effective products reduce these stressors, hospitalization is less stressful and more restful, and healing is encouraged.

Recycled rubber flooring offers high performance in areas where this kind of evidence is strong, and where the specific requirements of healthcare and educational facilities overlap: sustainability, ergonomics, acoustics, indoor air quality, and the use of color and aesthetics to support human performance.

Sustainability

In both healthcare and education, decision makers are increasingly insisting on sustainable designs, products, and materials.

“Sustainable” has come to mean an entire life cycle of low environmental impact. More sophisticated tools are now available to measure every phase of a product's performance, from the raw material through manufacturing, transportation, installation, maintenance, occupant health, and comfort during a long service life, and finally how the material will ultimately be disposed of or, in the best case, recycled or reclaimed.

The life-cycle cost of recycled rubber flooring is lower than most other flooring materials (see “Life-Cycle Cost Comparisons). This is partially due to its inherent material properties, and also to innovative manufacturing processes that result in products with very low embodied energy.

Recycled rubber manufacturers who stress sustainability can participate in the ASTM E2129 Sustainability Assessment program, which requires verified responsible practices at every stage of the product's life cycle. (See “Checklist: The Most Sustainable” on page 8.)