Trinity Hospital builds Green Roof

Chicago, IL (July 22, 2009) Advocate Trinity Hospital, located at 2320 East 93rd Street in Chicago, recently finished building a green roof outside the Solarium on the 2nd floor of the Northeast building of the hospital.

Due to its solar reflective and absorption effect, the green roof makes Trinity Hospital good stewards for the environment by lowering the amount of energy needed for cooling that portion of the building, helping reduce the amount of heat used during the winter (by using the extra layer of insulation the vegetation provides to keep heat inside of the building) and also assisting in reducing the amount of water that is being discharged to the storm water system.

The Green Roof project, managed by LaMar Davis, Director of Facilities & Support Services and Chair of Trinity's Green Committee, is part of Advocate Health Care's green initiatives to adopt environmentally sustainable practices to further promote health and healing. In addition, Advocate Health Care has setup a Green Council, which has representatives from all advocate sites including the Green Committee at Trinity Hospital. In the last year, Trinity's Green Team has recycled 1,243 lbs. of electronic equipment, more than six tons of paper and implemented a battery recycling program. The team was also able to de-lamper the hospital vending machines saving roughly $900 per month in electricity usage.

In the upcoming months, the committee hopes to initiate a more extensive plastic and paper recycling program, implement a car-pooling program and reduce their electrical usage.

Providing healthcare on the Southeast Side of Chicago for over 110 years, Advocate Trinity Hospital is a 250-bed not-for-profit health care facility.  Part of Advocate Health Care, Trinity offers a full range of inpatient and outpatient services as well as a variety of community outreach programs.  Trinity Hospital's commitment to clinical excellence is evident by its place in the top one percent of the nation's hospitals for patient mortality as well as its emerging advances in advanced heart attack care, which will help fulfill a compelling community need in the area which it serves.  For more information on Trinity, please visit www.advocatehealth.com/trin

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