Construction gets greener, but fewer projects abroad

American healthcare construction companies are going green. But they're now less likely to go abroad.

Modern Healthcare's 36th Annual Healthcare Construction & Design Survey for the first time asked companies if they worked on a project achieving or seeking certification in the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, which recognizes environment-friendly construction and operation.

Slightly less than half the survey respondents (48.9%) reported working on a LEED project. Of those, 50% said the square footage of their LEED projects increased, 34% said it stayed the same and 16% said it went down.

The LEED leaders were Boston-based architects MorrisSwitzer-Environments for Health, which worked on 73 projects designed to LEED standards; followed by Orlando, Fla.-based HuntonBrady Architects, which worked on 59 LEED projects; and Cleveland-based Westlake Reed Leskosky architects, which worked on 42.

UCSF Medical Center's new $1.5 billion Mission Bay project in San Francisco has received LEED gold certification, the second-highest level in the program. The project includes 4.3 acres of green space and 60,000 square feet of rooftop gardens.

Andrew Quirk, national director of Skanska USA's Healthcare Center of Excellence, expects more healthcare organizations to go in this direction. For example, Kaiser Permanente has committed to seeking LEED gold certification for all its new buildings.

Bethesda, Md.-based Clark Construction Group worked on a combined heat-and-power system for the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center campus in Bel Air. It uses exhaust heat from the building's power generator to deliver heat and electrical power.

The Modern Healthcare survey found that U.S. construction and design companies did slightly less work last year in other countries. Many had sought work on foreign projects during the Great Recession. Almost 22% of respondents worked on foreign projects in 2014, down from 26% in both 2013 and 2012.

Survey participants reported working on projects in 32 foreign countries. Twelve companies had projects in China, six in both the United Kingdom and Canada, and five had projects in Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.