Sustainability at Michigan Medicine

Building Design

With significant growth taking place on the Michigan Medicine campus, incorporating sustainability and energy reduction efforts into building design is one of the most effective ways to reduce our carbon footprint.

This practice not only reduces energy resource use, it saves on energy costs and lowers carbon dioxide emissions.

Going Green with LEED

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, people spend more than 90 percent of their time indoors. Environmentally-friendly buildings typically have better indoor air quality and lighting.

Michigan Medicine requires all new buildings, additions and construction projects with a budget of $10,000,000 or more to meet Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver level.  LEED is one of most widely accepted international rating systems for measuring the environmental impact of new construction. 

By meeting LEED standards, we are able to support the implementation of sustainable design concepts for new construction.

Specifically, designing LEED certified buildings helps Michigan Medicine to achieve:

C.S. Mott Children's and Von Voigtlander Women's Hospital (C&W) received LEED Silver level certification.
Read more about C&W's LEED Silver certification

Sustainability features of the building include:

Green Roof
The new "green roof" on C&W filters rainfall as part of a natural storm-water management system. Planted with sedum, a drought-resistant perennial groundcover, the living roof helps insulate the building and reduce energy loss and contributes to overall air quality. Because the new hospital is built on what was previously a parking lot, the green roof essentially reduces the amount of paved surfaces on campus. The eco-friendly roof is also expected to last twice as long as a conventional roof.

Raising the Bar

We continually strive to be leaders in sustainability. This is evident in our voluntary commitment for LEED certification in new buildings, our commitment for major projects to incorporate mandatory Energy Conservation (ECMs) and evaluate other potential ECMs, our requirement for water conservation measures that in aggregate use 20 percent less water than a baseline water use, and our everyday practices for sustainability and energy conservation in all UMH projects and operations.

Several sections of our Design Guidelines for Design and Construction outline UMH's detailed requirements related to energy efficiency as well as sustainable design and environmental stewardship.