FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 26, 2024

ASHE Earns Sixth Consecutive ENERGY STAR Sustained Excellence Award 

CHICAGO — The American Society for Health Care Engineering (ASHE) is proud to announce that it has received the 2024 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year – Sustained Excellence Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Energy for the sixth year in a row. The award recognizes ASHE’s continued leadership and superior contributions to ENERGY STAR and its ongoing commitment to promoting sustainability in health facilities management. 

“It’s an honor to accept this award on behalf of ASHE’s members, who are continuing to carry out the hard work of decarbonizing health care facilities,” said Kara Brooks, ASHE senior associate director of sustainability. “ASHE is excited to build upon its past successes to help hospitals across the country reach their sustainability goals.”

The award marks the eighth consecutive year that ASHE has won an ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year Award. ASHE provides sustainability resources and programs tailored to hospitals, which have unique energy needs due to their around-the-clock operation and energy-intensive medical equipment. ASHE’s Energy to Care Program helps hospitals track sustainability metrics, become more efficient and redirect energy and water savings toward patient care. Energy to Care is one of ASHE’s key offerings under the banner of its Sustainability Roadmap for Health Care, which also encompasses challenges, hosted programs, tools and publications to raise awareness about the importance of decarbonization and advance sustainable practices across the health care field. ASHE’s efforts have contributed to increased efficiency in hospitals across the country in the following ways:

• Hospitals in the Energy to Care program have saved more than $550 million (and counting) in collective energy savings.
• More hospitals are making the commitment to energy efficiency. In 2014, 239 facilities participated in Energy to Care. Today, more than 4,400 facilities are participating.
• More hospitals are reducing energy use quickly. In 2023, 78 hospitals earned an Energy to Care Award by reducing energy consumption by 10% in a single year or 15% over two years. Additionally, 10 facilities won a Sustainability Champion Award and 32 facilities maintained top-tier energy performance to earn Sustained Performance awards.
• More hospitals are reaching major efficiency accomplishments. The number of health care facilities in ASHE’s Energy to Care Program with ENERGY STAR scores of 75 or more has increased from 110 in 2010 to 823 in 2023, with 53 hospitals and 271 medical offices earning ENERGY STAR certification last year.
   

The Sustained Excellence Award is the highest honor bestowed by the ENERGY STAR program. Winners are part of a distinguished group that has made a long-term commitment to fighting climate change and protecting public health through energy efficiency. They are among the nation’s leaders in driving value for the environment, the economy and the American people.

Winners are selected from a network of thousands of ENERGY STAR partners. For a complete list of 2024 winners and more information about ENERGY STAR’s awards program, visit energystar.gov/awardwinners.

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. 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.