The U.S. Green Building Council South and Central Florida Chapters’ Emerging Professionals Committees are seeking entries for the 2015 Natural Talent Design Competition (NTDC). This year’s NTDC will focus on the LEEDv4 for Healthcare rating system. Successful proposals ultimately will support a national movement for designing healthcare facilities that not only heal humans, but also the environment around them.

The NTDC provides an applied learning experience in the principles of integrated design, sustainability, innovation and social consciousness, all of which are components of the LEED Green Building Rating System. The competition is directed toward the notion that a sustainable future must incorporate the sustainable design of structures of every type. The challenge exists in identifying how the planned structures within our cities can prove to have the greatest potential.

Sustainable healthcare design is increasingly seen as a logical extension of a healthcare organization’s mission to care for people -- to “First Do No Harm.” At the most immediate level, sustainable design is about providing an enhanced healing environment focused on stress reduction, safety and high indoor environmental quality for patients, their care providers, and families.