Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican recently hosted a community roundtable on clean energy leadership at their San Martin Campus in Las Vegas. The goal of the gathering was to create a dialogue around the opportunities for investing in renewables, along with the barriers or challenges to transitioning to clean energy in Nevada.
A bipartisan group of policymakers (both current legislators and legislative candidates), business representatives from three major industries in Nevada, clean energy experts, and a representative of the Las Vegas area chamber of commerce participated.
The event began with a tour of the hospital’s new solar panel arrays, one of two installations recently completed at their Nevada campuses. The arrays are dotted throughout the parking lot and serve a dual purpose as carports for 1,150 parking spaces at both hospitals. At San Martin, the project is expected to produce 3.6 million kWh, and the Siena array is expected to produce 2.8 million kWh of clean energy annually.
The aggregate amount of energy from these Dignity Health projects offsets the environmental impact of 534,000 gallons of gasoline or 1,015 cars each year.
“Key to the mission of our founding sisters, the Adrian Dominican Sisters, is ecological sustainability and the protection of our planet for future generations,” said Sister Phyllis Sikora, vice president of mission and spiritual care for Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican Hospitals. “These solar panels are more than just covered parking for our staff and visitors, although that is so important in the Las Vegas heat, but also our demonstration that our motto ‘Hello Humankindness’ extends beyond the walls of our hospitals and into the environment that we depend on each and every day. If we are not dedicated to protecting our environment, we are not helping to fulfill our mission to the communities we serve.”
Policymakers left the roundtable with a greater understanding of why Nevada hospitals and businesses are investing in clean energy and how they can create policy to support economic development across the state along with a new perspective on the interconnectedness between Dignity’s healing mission and its commitment to clean energy.
Dignity Health is a member of the Health Care Climate Council and Practice Greenhealth as well as the Ceres BICEP Network.