USGBC seeks help to close performance gap in buildings

The role that buildings play in the health and well-being of the environment and human health is becoming more widely understood.

Reducing our built environment’s use of energy is reflected in LEED v3, the newest version of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design green building rating system—more so than in any previous version.

Energy use in buildings is paramount to all structures but is especially important in the health care field. Research shows that health care organizations spend over $8.3 billion on energy each year to meet patient needs and that every dollar saved on energy is equivalent to generating new revenues of $20 for hospitals or $10 for medical offices.

Green health care facilities are contributing to a positive bottom-line economic trend—specifically in the areas of improved staff recruitment and retention, reduced patient length of stay, and the preferred facility when patients have a choice. These measurable benefits are important in a competitive health care market where hospitals and other health care facilities compete for the best medical expertise and for patients. They also contribute to a spectrum of community benefits and allow health care facilities to reposition their operations around a mission of health and healing versus taking care of sick people.

The LEED for Health Care system will be released under LEED v3 in the coming months. A critical piece of v3 is the Minimum Program Requirements (MPRs), or minimum characteristics that a project must have in order to be eligible for LEED certification.

One of the eight MPRs requires certified projects allow USGBC access to whole building energy and water use data. This data is essential in understanding actual building performance. This data will help inform future development of LEED and with good commissioning, a key component of LEED, ensure that buildings perform as predicted if not better.

Today there is all too often a disconnect, or performance gap, between the aspirational goals of energy modeling and what actually happens in a building during daily operation (see LEED for health care: Worth it?). USGBC is calling on the industry to help close the performance gap.

To close the performance gap, the building industry needs a holistic approach that addresses improvements to current practice and convention as well as better education in specific areas:

• Establish whole-building energy performance targets at the design stage. Once done, establish system level (i.e. HVAC, lighting, plug loads, etc.) energy-performance targets to better inform the design.
• Make our energy models better. Ensure all energy models include all building energy loads (including plug and process loads). Incorporate a more robust, more reality based plug loads, occupant schedules, and overall building activity levels.
• Encourage “living” energy models which follow the building and are routinely updated through the building’s design-construction-operation life cycle.
• Benchmark actual energy performance against a national peer group.
• Commission education. Today, commissioning skills vary too widely resulting in under-performing buildings. Greater education and perhaps an international credential is needed.
• Conduct research in three areas:

• Developing appropriate system-level benchmarks as a function of building type, climate, location, and building size.
• Understanding the role and appropriate use of building controls.
• Developing “energy signatures”—a concept put forward in the most recent NBI study that seems to have a lot of promise, though little study behind it.

The LEED for Health Care rating system is the first LEED rating system adapted for the health care industry and builds upon the work of the Green Guide for Health Care (GGHC), a project of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems and Health Care without Harm.

The program is currently under development by a committee comprised of health care industry experts that represent multiple disciplines. The rating system addresses not only the energy needs of a 24-hour operational facility but process water use related to medical equipment, rural facility locations, patient and staff health (via reducing materials with PBTs and increasing access to nature) and many other issues that are unique to this building type.

LEED for Health Care will help a diverse pool of project types achieve LEED green building certification, from inpatient, outpatient, assisted living and long term care facilities, to medical offices, education and research centers. The rating system was modeled after the organizational structure of the LEED for New Construction rating system, and through the expertise of more than 100 health care facilities. 

Green building activity is approaching critical mass in the health care sector, as the industry moves from a few pioneers to a fundamental change in how hospitals and other health care facilities are designed, constructed and operated, with attention to energy and water conservation, indoor environmental quality and other health and environmental considerations. As this critical mass is taking hold, assessing the operational performance of health care's green portfolio will enable a measured correlation between specific design features and construction methods and materials.

Gail Vittori is chairwoman of the U.S. Green Building Council’s board of directors, as well as a LEED AP and co-director of the Center for Maximum Potential Building Systems. Vittori led a committee that devised the Green Guide for Health Care. For more information on LEED for Health Care and v3 visit usgbc.org.

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