In July, CentraState Healthcare System received the New Good Neighbor Award from the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) for its solar energy initiative, a project started in 2015 to power the medical center and support the local community in cleaner, greener, and more sustainable ways.

The New Good Neighbor Awards, now in their 60th year, recognize organizations that make an economic and social impact in their communities through noteworthy improvement projects. Awardees are selected based on the project’s economic value, architectural merit, job creation, and community involvement.

CentraState already produces the largest percentage of solar power of any hospital in New Jersey, and those efforts are still expanding. In addition to its solar panel farm and solar parking lot carports, planning is underway to add solar carports in the Emergency Department parking lot. Together, these solar arrays are projected to produce approximately 70% of the hospital’s electric needs and save over $600,000 in annual energy costs. The solar initiative reduces the hospital’s carbon footprint and offsets greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide emissions annually, helping to further CentraState’s mission of enhancing the health and well-being of the communities it serves.

When the final phase is completed, CentraState’s solar energy initiative will offset greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide emissions equivalent to:

• 376 billion smartphones charged
• 26,779,128 miles of vehicle traffic
• 11,891291 pounds of coal burned
• 1,214,357 gallons of gasoline used
• 1,827 homes’ electricity for one year