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In this era of rising costs and falling revenue, area hospitals want to go green.

During the past year, officials at Piedmont Triad hospitals have put their institutions under a microscope to figure out ways to become more energy efficient and less wasteful.

Hospitals have installed energy-saving light bulbs, used less paper, bought electric boilers, recycled ink cartridges and computers, and given used cell phones to shelters so victims of domestic violence can call 911 in an emergency.

It’s all about saving money — as much as $1 million a year at Greensboro’s Moses Cone Health System.

But it’s also about becoming better stewards beyond their broad hallways. Hospital officials see that the right thing for the environment — and for the hospitals’ pocketbooks — is often the same thing.

Just run the numbers. The National Coalition on Health Care did. According to the nonprofit watchdog, health care spending is expected to reach $4.3 trillion in the next decade — 20 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product by 2016.

Green has become medicine’s new catch phrase nationwide and across the Triad.

“Everyone is thinking, 'How can we save money?’ ’’ said Nelson Sergent, Sodexho director of energy for Moses Cone Health System. “Revenue has dropped. Everything has dropped. But through all these programs, you are not only showing how you can save money, you are changing the way you do business.’’

Hospitals are some of the Triad’s largest employers, and these facilities — often the cornerstone of local economies — use the most energy and the most water.

So, hospitals regionwide got busy.

Moses Cone began an automated water treatment program to use less water and fewer chemicals in its cooling towers and boilers in each of its four hospitals: Moses Cone Hospital, Wesley Long Hospital and The Women’s Hospital in Greensboro and Annie Penn Hospital in Reidsville.

The result: 12 million fewer gallons of water a year and annual savings of $20,000.

In 2008, Randolph Hospital in Asheboro opened a $31 million Outpatient Center and Randolph Cancer Center with an array of windows. The reason: to bring in natural light and reduce the amount of electricity needed.

The Women’s Hospital of Greensboro spent $35,000 to replace its fluorescent light bulbs with lower-wattage bulbs. The project paid for itself in four months.

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem bought an electric boiler to use in off-peak hours during the middle of the night so officials will not have to buy natural gas during that time.

The result: savings of $700,000 a year.

Then there’s GreenWorks . It’s a grass-roots effort created at the medical center to help coordinate projects and stimulate environment-friendly ideas across a health care system with 13,000 employees.

It acts as a catalyst to persuade employees to reduce, reuse and recycle. And to change the way they think about green.

“This is not just a fad, says Scott Kilbourne, 57, the hospital’s associate director of creative communications and chairman of GreenWorks.

“People are realizing resources are finite and the conditions of the world and environment we have now is worse than it was when I was growing up.

“My personal opinion is that I don’t want to hand this off to my kid,” Kilbourne said. “He just turned 21. This happened on my watch.

“Is that right? No, it’s not right.’’

Contact Jeri Rowe at 373-7374 or jeri.rowe@news-record.com