Are our ‘green’ hospitals actually as environmentally-friendly as we are led to believe?

As part of its four-year Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) programme, The Technology Strategy Board has announced an £8m moneypot which will fund environmental impact assessments of new buildings, with a particular focus on the healthcare sector.

We have a long way to go before we see low-carbon building design that creates a truly low-carbon building  

And it is thought that the exercise could highlight inefficiencies and flaws in a number of new hospital and health centre developments, particularly in terms of the return on investment provided by new and emerging low-carbon technologies.

In an interview with BBH last week, BPE assessor, Roderic Bunn, said: “We have a long way to go before we see low-carbon building design that creates a truly low-carbon building.

“There is a feeling that we can solve everything in the design phase by, for example, bringing in combined heat and power or solar panels, and that this will give us a low-carbon building. But we need to recognise that a low-carbon building is not about just technology. The design input is largely academic. It is not what you do, but the way you do it and the overall outcomes that creates.

“As a result of this approach, we are seeing buildings now that purport to be low energy, but when we actually do energy surveys, we find that it is somewhere between good practice and typical and we need to do far better than that.”

One of the biggest problems, he said, was that while meaning well when implementing so-called ‘green’ technologies, designers are not thinking about how they will operate in practice. And that can prove a major headache for estates and facilities managers, particularly those working in large NHS hospitals.

We need to recognise that a low-carbon building is not about just technology. It is not what you do, but the way you do it and the overall outcomes that creates

In terms of energy use, hospitals are among the biggest culprits in the community as their very nature means that heating loads are high and electrical devices will be working round the clock.

Bunn said: “Designers are not good at thinking about what is manageable. There is a feeling that biomass boilers will work straight out of the box, whereas they need a lot of fine tuning. We need to get thinking about this much earlier on in the design process to ensure we get the very best out of these investments. At the moment the system seems to be set up to focus on BREEAM energy ratings, which are carried out early on in the design and construction process. Instead we need to look at things and see what is risky and fragile and what works well. What is robust in one context, could be fragile in another and we want to know where these sensitivities lie. It is not all about BREEAM and sustainability gongs. What really matters is what does on further down the line.”

It is not all about BREEAM and sustainability gongs. What really matters is what does on further down the line

Key problems in healthcare environments, as well as the 24-hour use, include lighting, electrical stand-by use, and metering. Bunn explained: “We need to find ways of preventing healthcare buildings from getting stuck on ‘on’.

“In many hospitals you find the heating goes on early in the morning, stays on all day, then, by the evening, the air conditioning kicks in. This is not using power efficiently.

“In hospitals a lot of electrical equipment remains on stand-by and a building can’t purport to be low carbon if the electrical systems are allowed to run wild inefficiently.

“Most people also forget about user controls. An intelligent building is one that does not make the occupants feel stupid. We are spending an awful lot of money on things, but when it comes to the user controls, we get them from the bargain bin. We do not spend enough time and money looking at user controls and we have to get on top of this if we want our buildings to perform better. Are design teams really thinking about the end user, or the design credits from BREEAM?

We do not spend enough time and money looking at user controls and we have to get on top of this if we want our buildings to perform better. Are design teams really thinking about the end user, or the design credits from BREEAM?

“We are just putting in technologies and expecting them to work first time. A building filled with low-carbon technologies might be a designer’s dream, but it might turn into a maintenance nightmare. We need to find out what we are doing and stop the worst examples. This research will explore how to bridge the gap.”

The TSB team is looking for nominations from single organisations for new buildings, particularly mixed-use healthcare facilities. Nominations will need to be received by 11 May.

Bunn said: “The reason for Building Performance Evaluations goes back to the 1990s when we discovered there was a very large gap between what the construction industry thought it was providing and the overall outcomes.

“The type of building is not as important as the process by which it is delivered. It is more to do with the way it is procured, finished and handed over.

“£8m is going into this programme and we want industry to act on the feedback it gets. We want the outcomes to be disseminated through the marketplace.”

The process will include a forensic walk-through where teams will identify potential problem areas, following by a review and data collection period and then an occupancy satisfaction survey.

A building filled with low-carbon technologies might be a designer’s dream, but it might turn into a maintenance nightmare

Bunn said: “Building designers are not always good at seeing how things are and where the problems might be. We want to know where things are happening and we want to be able to rate it in a way that will be useful.”

The project is supported by the Building Services Research and Information Association (BSRIA), ARUP, the Building Research Establishment (BRE), and the Construction Industry Research and Information Association (CIRIA).

DO YOU BELIEVE THE MILLIONS OF POUNDS SPENT ‘GREENING UP’ THE NHS ESTATE IS HELPING TO REDUCE CARBON EMISSIONS, OR HAVE WE GOT IT WRONG? SIGN IN BELOW TO POST YOUR COMMENT