Wishard celebrates Earth Day with series of environment-focused health initiatives

One year after delivering a major sustainability announcement from a rooftop overlooking the new hospital construction site, Wishard kicked off Earth Day 2011 on Friday with an event closer to the ground. Hospital officials joined city, health, sustainability and Slow Food community leaders at the Wishard Slow Food Garden at White River State Park to announce a series of new initiatives that continue and enhance Wishard’s longstanding support for community wellness through healthful diet and lifestyle choices and sustainability.

Wishard joined city, health, sustainability and urban gardens community leaders to announce the Wishard Slow Food Garden at White River State Park as well as numerous new Wishard programs aimed at improving community health through healthful diets and sustainability.

In addition to announcing Wishard’s support for the Slow Food garden, Wishard also detailed plans to form an urban agriculture and health partnership with its sister agency, the Marion County Public Health Department (MCPHD), to serve as a community resource to improve the success and ensure the safety and quality of urban gardens in the community.

“Wishard recognizes the importance of the connection between healthful food options, a healthy diet and a healthy community,” said Dr. Lisa Harris, CEO and medical director at Wishard. “For the last several years, we have passionately served as an advocate and community resource for advancing awareness and adoption of healthy lifestyle and diet choices to support improving health outcomes for our patients and for our community. I’m very pleased that we have the opportunity to expand our commitment, broaden Wishard’s already vast role and positively affect even more lives.”

The Wishard Slow Food Garden at White River State Park will support education and engagement in urban gardening and Slow Food, as well as provide some produce for distribution through local farmers’ markets and eateries. Wishard also announced an agreement with Laura Henderson to support Wishard’s current and future urban agriculture initiatives.

“Wishard has a long history of broadly supporting the health of our Indianapolis community, and these new programs are going to make Indianapolis a better, more livable city by enhancing community health through improved land use, access to healthful food and promoting a culture of sustainability,” Mayor Greg Ballard. “I established a goal to create 50 urban gardens in Center Township by the end of 2011. We have 35 gardens in place today, and with the support of organizations like Wishard and the public health department, through initiatives like the one we’re celebrating today on Earth Day, I’m certain we will achieve our goal.”

For Earth Day 2010, Wishard held an event on the roof of the Richard L. Roudebush VA Medical Center, overlooking the construction site to announce plans for The New Wishard to pursue Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Silver certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. Wishard announced Friday that the project continues on pace to meet that goal, which would make it the first hospital in Indiana and one of 10 in America to achieve LEED® Silver certification.

“The New Wishard is on time, on budget and on plan to open in 2014 as a LEED® Silver campus where we will expand and enhance Wishard’s commitment to community health and wellness,” said Matthew R. Gutwein, president and CEO of Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County, which operates Wishard. “Our new sustainability and urban agriculture initiatives will supplement our role to efficiently provide quality care and contribute to a healthier community.”

Wishard also announced a partnership with the Indy Winter Farmers to create a voucher program to increase access to healthful market food products for Wishard patients. Wishard will also begin collaboration with Big City Farms to develop community-supported agriculture (CSA) programs to make fresh, locally grown and produced foods available to patients and the community through Wishard’s community health centers with the latter. Wishard’s partnership with MCPHD will focus on education and support to serve as a resource for urban gardeners on health-related matters.

“We recognize that poor nutrition is one of the greater challenges facing our urban populations, one that contributes to an array of diseases and conditions, and changing that equation starts at the source – reversing the shortage of healthy food options,” said Dr. Virginia Caine, director of MCPHD. “Our service as a resource for proponents of urban agriculture will contribute to the health of the community by enhancing access to nutritious, locally grown foods that are produced in safe soil, while also enhancing our neighborhoods by converting vacant lots into productive spaces.”

Over the last several years, Wishard has supported and initiated numerous programs within the health system and in the community that work toward augmenting the health and wellness of Marion County residents and Wishard’s patients, visitors and staff. In addition to supporting programs such as the Spirit & Place Festival and diet-based health programs for staff and patients, Wishard hosts a farmers market during the summer and Wishard gardens, where staff can use green space at the hospital to grow plants, flowers and produce.

“Spring is a season of renewal, and Wishard’s announcement today is a rejuvenation of its longstanding service as an advocate, resource and provider for community health through environmental factors,” said Greg Fehribach, Health & Hospital Corporation Board of Trustees member.

Wishard will partner with Slow Food Indy and Growing Places Indy – both of which Henderson helped create and establish – to operate the Slow Food garden.

“I am excited to work with Wishard to help maximize the impact the Wishard Slow Food Garden can have on our community as a tool for awareness, educational opportunities and engagement in promoting the health of our community through Slow Food and sustainability,” said Henderson.

Wishard will continue to enhance its ability to augment community health in The New Wishard. The New Wishard will feature a first-of-its-kind sky farm, where Wishard will grow organic foods to offer its patients, visitors and staff healthful diet options. The New Wishard’s green roof design incorporates plant life and a white roof, which will lessen the solar heat impact on the urban heat sink, make for a more comfortable campus and create energy savings. The new facility will support employees who embrace green transportation options with bike racks, showers and designated parking for alternative fuel, high occupancy, carpool and vanpool vehicles. The New Wishard will use 45 percent less energy.

“Wishard’s efforts mirror our own as we focus on creating a more sustainable, environmentally friendly community,” said Justin Armstrong, board president for Earth Day Indiana. “We support and applaud these initiatives.”

Wishard will have a booth at Earth Day Indiana on Saturday, where it will display the new hospital rendering, as well as the second set of art proposals for The New Wishard, kicking off public comment on the designs.

The set of proposals features exclusively outdoor locations, where the art would contribute both to The New Wishard’s environment of health and healing, as well as the campus’s sustainability. Wishard will collect public comment on the 10 proposals as it displays them at Wishard’s Sunshine Hallway, at City Market and online. From these proposals, Wishard plans to select a small number for installation on the new hospital’s sustainable campus.

To learn more about the Wishard Slow Food Garden at White River State Park, visit www.Wishard.edu/slowfoodgarden.

Wishard announces plan for LEED Silver certification

America’s third-largest safety net hospital system – and Marion County’s longest-tenured – will rank among its most advanced in energy efficiency and environmental design when The New Wishard Hospital opens at the end of 2013.

Mayor Gregory Ballard and Marion County Health Department Director Dr. Virginia Caine joined Wishard officials on Wednesday afternoon to announce that the new facilities would pursue Silver certification, the third-highest level on the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) rating scale. Accomplishing the feat would make Wishard one of only 10 newly constructed hospitals in America to achieve LEED® certification at the level of Silver or higher, and the only one of its kind in Indiana.

Indianapolis Mayor Gregory A. Ballard commends Wishard for its plans to build The New Wishard to be LEED Silver certified by the United States Green Building Council.

Indianapolis Mayor Gregory A. Ballard commends Wishard for its plans to build The New Wishard to be LEED Silver certified by the United States Green Building Council.

“The New Wishard project is a central component to the future of sustainability in Indianapolis and represents our commitment to creating a cleaner, healthier, more energy-efficient city,” said Mayor Ballard. “I commend Wishard’s plan to build one of the nation’s most environmentally friendly facilities as we strive to become America’s most livable big city and take a leading role in creating jobs for our growing economy.”

Wishard makes the announcement as workers continue demolition on the vacant former Larue D. Carter Psychiatric Hospital at the site of the new hospital.

“When so many of us stood in support of a new Wishard last fall, we weren’t merely supporting a better hospital – we were supporting a healthier, better Indianapolis community,” said Dr. Caine. “Days like today show even more how Wishard will improve the health and wellness of Indianapolis and Marion County.”

Wishard’s decision to reuse an old urban site is one of the many credits the new facilities achieve for their environmental sustainability.

“The New Wishard hospital that the voters of Marion County overwhelmingly approved will be a beacon of health and wellness for Indianapolis,” said Matthew Gutwein, president and CEO of Health & Hospital Corporation of Marion County, which operates Wishard. “Wishard is committed to exercising environmental stewardship so that Indianapolis becomes a more livable and sustainable city.”

“Wishard’s focus is people. We must consider the needs not only of our current patients but also of future generations of our city’s residents,” said Dr. Lisa Harris, CEO and medical director of Wishard Health Services. “Our priority is on the overall health of the community in the broadest terms. Wishard’s decision to build an environmentally friendly hospital is critical to that mission.”

Plans for The New Wishard include numerous design elements and operations that will contribute to its certification as one of America’s greenest new hospitals including pollution control during construction, energy savings through efficient design, water usage savings, outside air circulation and features for staff including bike racks, showers and designated parking for alternative fuel vehicles and high occupancy carpool and vanpool vehicles.

The New Wishard design elements are described as planned and may change due to construction and other factors. Certification is subject to USGBC audit upon project completion.

LEED® is an internationally-recognized building certification providing third-party verification that a building was designed and constructed using strategies aimed at improving performance in energy savings, water efficiency, carbon emissions reduction, improved indoor air quality and stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts.

The project to construct a new Wishard will create 4,400 jobs and will transform the landscape of healthcare in Indianapolis.

Marion County voters approved construction of a new Wishard in the Nov. 3, 2009 election, with 85 percent support for the measure, and Wishard began work immediately. Wishard plans to complete the new facility at the end 2013.

Demolition phase underway

The large-scale exterior demolition phase of the project to construct a new Wishard for all of Indianapolis began in early February. The vacant former Larue D. Carter Psychiatric Hospital will be the first structure to come down on the site of the new Wishard.

One of the large machines that will be used to demolish the former Larue Carter facility.

One of the large machines that will be used to demolish the former Larue Carter facility.

Local contractor Denney Excavating will carry out the destructive demolition process, a months-long task that entails use of heavy machinery, including hydraulic-powered steel shears and concrete-crushing jaws to pinch structural members. Workers operated several pieces of equipment to begin toppling the upper floors at the end of the east wings of the long-vacant structure. They will dismantle the building in chunks from the outer wings toward the center and from the upper floors moving down to the foundation.

Categories