Greenhouse gas emissions are constantly increasing, highlighting the need for sustainable practices across all industries, and healthcare is no exception. According to a study published on the NCBI website, the healthcare sector is responsible for 4.4% of greenhouse gas emissions. That’s why sustainable healthcare facility design is the future of medicine.
It’s also a smart financial decision for your hospital or medical office building project. This guide will help you start your green building journey by providing some best practices for sustainable healthcare facility design and strategies to help you save money and improve patient care through environmental sustainability.
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Benefits of Sustainable Healthcare Facility Design
Sustainable healthcare facility design is an integral part of the future of healthcare. By implementing sustainable practices, you can lower your costs and improve patient experience at the same time.
There’s even a specialization for such design and development called the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification. It is also the most widely used construction system when it comes to green buildings.
If you want to get a LEED certification, you can take the internet’s help. There are many online websites available for exam preparation. There are also localized help websites that can help you prepare for your local LEED exams. For instance, to get LEED certification in San Antonio, you can look for keyword terms like “LEED Green Associate Exam Prep in San Antonio.”
Here are some of the benefits of sustainable design:
- Lower operating costs: Achieving LEED certification requires extensive planning, which can help keep construction costs down. Additionally, using materials that have high recycled content or are locally sourced will reduce transportation costs and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with transporting materials across long distances.
- The result is less money spent on energy consumption and waste management services while meeting sustainability goals. There are two LEED certifications, gold and platinum, that can increase construction costs by 7.43% and 9.43%, respectively. However, energy costs are reduced.
- Improved patient experience: Patients care about more than just their health. They also want to know what kind of impact they’re having on their environment when they visit a hospital or clinic for treatment. Patients can also feel more relaxed in LEED-certified hospitals. This can be because these facilities often use natural rather than artificial lights emitting harmful UV rays into the air around them.
Best Practices for Building Sustainable Healthcare Facility
There are several strategies you can use to design your sustainable healthcare facility. One of the most important things to remember is that you don’t need to start from scratch. Many green building practices, materials, and designs have been successfully implemented in other buildings.
Here are some best practices for building sustainable healthcare facilities:
Use Energy-Efficient Systems
You should use energy-efficient lighting, HVAC, and water systems to reduce the facility’s energy consumption.
Energy-efficient lighting
Use LED lights instead of traditional fluorescent bulbs. They’re more expensive upfront but can save money in the long run because they use less electricity than incandescent or halogen bulbs.
Energy-efficient HVAC systems
Ensure your heating and cooling system is properly sized for your building’s needs. Too much air conditioning will waste money on overused equipment, and too little will make workers uncomfortable or send them home sick with heat exhaustion or hypothermia.
Water conservation measures
You can implement water conservation measures, such as:
- Install sensors that shut off faucets when not in use.
- Replace old toilets with low-flow models.
- Put drip irrigation systems outside gardens instead of watering by hand.
- Ask patients to limit showering time so less hot water needs to be used overall.
Such measures can offer several benefits for your healthcare facility and the environment. One of the most prominent benefits is that green buildings can help save 10% – 40% of water consumption.
Using energy-efficient systems will also reduce your energy consumption, helping reduce greenhouse emission gasses emitted while generating electricity. For example, San Antonio emitted 16 million metric tons of greenhouse gas in 2021. One of the biggest contributors to this significant greenhouse emission was electricity generation.
Get Help From a Commercial Construction Company
To get help from a commercial construction company, start by having them provide you with their list of sustainable building materials and techniques. This will give you insight into their solutions for making your healthcare facility more sustainable.
Next, sit down with one or more representatives from each company to discuss your needs in detail. Ask them about their experiences designing similar buildings. If possible, visit some of those facilities to see first-hand how they incorporated sustainability into their designs without sacrificing functionality or effectiveness.
Professionals will have the proper knowledge and resources to help build a sustainable healthcare facility. When selecting a business, look for a local service provider. This is because a local construction company will also be quickly available for help even after the construction. So hiring a local business will improve your post-project completion experience, which is crucial.
For example, if you want to build a healthcare facility in San Antonio, hire a construction company from there or at least someone with an office in Texas, but not beyond that. When looking for commercial construction in San Antonio, it is also essential to go through the company’s experience and project delivery models.
Consider the example of MPS Construction. It is a construction company operating in San Antonio with 25+ years of experience. The company also provides multiple project delivery models, including design-bid-build, hard bid, design-build, sole-source, etc. You can look at such information on a company’s website to find the right service provider.
Design for an Aging Population
Designing for an aging population is the first step to designing a sustainable healthcare facility. You can’t have a sustainable design if your patients don’t have access to basic needs like walking or using their hands, so it’s important to consider the needs of people with disabilities when planning your space.
- Design for elderly people. As we age, many of us will become less independent and require assistance from others to live comfortably at home. In fact, seniors who live alone are twice as likely to die within one year after being hospitalized than those who don’t live alone. In 2020, about 16.9% of the American population was 65 or older, which is set to rise.
- Design rooms based on patient needs instead of budget constraints. The best way we’ve found success is by creating mockups before construction begins using cardboard boxes filled with pillows so everyone can visualize how they’ll fit into each room while still having plenty of leftover space.
Incorporate Renewable Energy Sources
Renewable energy sources are the future of sustainable healthcare facilities. The following are examples of renewable energy sources you can incorporate into your facility:
- Solar panels
- Wind turbines
- Geothermal heating and cooling systems
- Hydropower plants, including small hydroelectric power generators
You may also want to consider biomass if you can access woody material that would otherwise be wasted, such as trees cleared during construction or dead trees onsite after storms.
Conduct a Sustainability Assessment
A sustainability assessment is a process that helps determine how well your healthcare facility is meeting the goals of its mission, vision, and values. It can be used to identify areas where you may need to make changes for your organization to reach its full potential as an environmentally conscious business. A sustainability assessment will provide valuable insight into the following:
- How much energy is used in the building?
- What types of products are being purchased? How sustainable are they?
- What waste materials are generated by the facility?
San Antonio is generally around the average in sustainability. A recent report on San Antonio’s sustainability index score shows a score of 40.8 out of 100, whereas the median score is 41.
Conclusion
We hope you enjoyed this guide to sustainable healthcare facility design. You can look for more information online for tips and best practices for building a sustainable healthcare facility. Collecting the required information before starting the project ensures everything goes smoothly.
