2016
Rick Sites has almost 40 years of experience in health law and regulatory practice. He has developed and managed trade association projects such as natural gas and electric aggregations and the creation of an energy efficiency and sustainability program for hospitals. One of Rick’s roles at OHA (Ohio Hospital Association) is to create and drive energy efficiency and sustainability programs for Ohio hospitals. In this leadership role, Rick has been a visible, active and effective advocate throughout Ohio as an Ohio Utility Collaborative participant, active advocate with the Ohio Public Utilities Commission and with the Ohio legislature crafting energy bills in Ohio.
Rick’s vision for embedding energy efficiency is to use his unique benchmarking approach to drive hospitals to the top of the benchmarking chart, while constantly looking at new approaches to make hospitals successful. Included in this approach is constant development of ways to keep energy efficiency visible. This constant exposure is required as hospitals tend to have a continual turnover of administrators and facilities staff.
Rick’s success in the practice of benchmarking to embed energy efficiency can be seen by the fact that the number of ENERGY STAR hospitals in Ohio has increased from 1 to 4, 2 of which are in the DP&L service territory. In contrast in the MEEA footprint, Illinois has 1, Wisconsin has 3 and the other 10 states have none. Rick’s success in advancing energy efficiency can be seen by a 2012 MEEA Innovation award for OHA, a Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission “Green Leader” award, a Leadership award from AEP Ohio, an Environmental Innovator award from the Ohio Environmental Council, and recognition from the American Hospital Association with an “award of honor.”