Hospitals and other care centers need water for patient care, but they are working hard to reduce water consumption.
Across the Sutter Health network, facilities use highly efficient laundry equipment to save 12 million gallons of water annually — or enough for 54,250 showers.
Sutter’s Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley was an early leader in minimizing water use with its LEED Silver Certification. The medical center and other facilities across the Sutter Health network have planted drought resistant and native landscaping.
At the Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s new San Carlos Center, Sutter also installed a high-efficiency irrigation system with a weather-data controller that helps save water.
Sutter expects a 50 percent water savings from a state-of-the-art water conservation system installed at Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital. Through an efficient outdoor irrigation system that waters drought tolerant plants only when needed, the hospital diverts storm water from its roof to bioswales and catch basins on site, which allows rain water to slowly infiltrate back into the soil and recharge the underground aquifer.
In another example, several hospitals in the greater Sacramento Valley and foothill region installed low-flow faucets, shower heads and toilets. As a result, they’ve reduced water consumption by 27 percent at Sutter Solano Medical Center, 16 percent at Sutter Davis Hospital and 13 percent at Sutter Amador Hospital in Jackson.
Memorial Medical Center in Modesto, among other changes, has modified its cleaning methods, using microfiber mops and new floor scrubbing machines — both requiring less water than previous equipment.
