Gundersen Health goes off the grid, saves money as energy independent hospital

Gundersen Health's wind turbines help offset energy costs.

Gundersen Health System has gone off the grid.

As of Oct.14, 2014, the LaCrosse, Wisconsin-based nonprofit healthcare network became the first hospital to offset all of its fossil fuel use with locally produced, green energy. But energy independence didn’t happen overnight. It all started six years ago, said Jeff Rich, executive director of Envision, Gundersen’s energy subsidiary.

“We did an energy audit in February of 2008 and it revealed some pretty stunning opportunities as far as cost savings and reducing our energy consumption,” Rich said.

The good news about energy conservation is that it saves money

After the audit, Gundersen focused on two main initiatives -- reducing consumption by improving efficiency and creating cleaner energy.

In a system-wide email sent last month, CEO Jeffrey Thompson said after Gundersen’s $2 million dollar one-time spend on conservation, they had reduced energy costs by $1.2 million each subsequent year and now have achieved energy independence.

To achieve that, Gunderson installed a host of green systems including biomass boilers that replaced natural gas ones, wind turbines farms on several farms, geothermal heat pumps to replace traditional heating and cooling systems, two dairy digesters that turn cow waste into biomass fuels that it can use in other systems and a landfill energy program that turns methane captured in a nearby landfill into an energy source.

[Click here to see photos of the green energy systems Gundersen installed]

Hospitals are still the second highest energy user of any sector and use double the amount of energy per square foot than commercial office buildings, according to the Department of Energy.

According to Janet Howard, director, content and outreach, Healthier Hospitals Initiative, Gundersen’s goals in quality patient experience, population health and fiscal responsibility  steered them to energy independence.

“They also felt that it would boost their local economy instead of using coal from Wyoming for electricity and natural gas from Texas for heat. It helps define them as an organization,” Howard said.

However, Rich cautioned that hospitals should not try to replicate what Gundersen has achieved. “I would tell people they need to measure where they are at,” Rich said. “Most organizations don’t understand what they spend on energy or what they’re doing to the environment in health so they should baseline themselves and see what they’re opportunity is.”

“You might be able to save half of your energy costs just by really good conservation efforts. And that’s a much different story than trying to do all of the renewables, which are more complex and are resource intensive.”

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Simon Watson, senior manager in the power & utilities practice at Ernst & Young, said renewable energy continues to gain ground in healthcare. “Beyond the core purpose of any medical institution there is evidence that sustainability, and the role that renewable energy plays, is gaining ground,” Watson said. “While new facilities are likely designed to meet LEED requirements, hospitals face a range of environmental challenges that compete for resources.”

Howard believes that achievements like Gundersen Health’s could be something that gains momentum and it proves that leaders can emerge from virtually anywhere.

“[This proves] hospitals can do the right thing and be fiscally responsible,” said Howard. “They are not mutually exclusive. The good news about energy conservation is that it saves money.”

Watson said Gundersen offers a compelling case study that likely will be replicated by other facilities in the coming years.

“When sustainability and clean energy make good business sense, there will be little that can stop its wider adoption,” he said.

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