Achieving LEED® Silver Certification
The new Providence Care Hospital will incorporate ‘green’ design to reduce its impact on the environment and to provide staff, clients, patients and visitors the opportunity to experience the outdoor environment as an important part of the healing process.
Planners are looking at ways to encourage a healthy environment within the hospital and on the facility grounds. This means making best use of natural light, outdoor spaces and walkways and workplace wellness.
Sustainable design and building ‘green’ are terms used to describe construction techniques that use resources efficiently while creating healthier buildings for patients and staff. ‘Green’ buildings are built to protect occupant health, use energy, water and other resources more efficiently and reduce the overall impact of the building on the environment.
Taking the LEED
The new hospital project will use the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED®) Canada approach, a rating system for new construction and major renovations which uses benchmarking tools for the design, construction and maintenance of green buildings. The intent is to promote healthful, durable, affordable, and environmentally sound practices in building design and construction. The new Providence Care Hospital is working toward a Silver LEED® certification.
Achieving Silver
In order to achieve the Silver LEED® certification, the Providence Care Hospital project must meet certain prerequisites and performance benchmarks within a set of categories.
These five key areas are:
Sustainable site:
Recognizing the ecological integrity of the site and pursuing strategies to minimize disruptions and consider the impact beyond the physical structure.
Water efficiency:
Balancing the water quality and quantity demands within the building.
Energy and atmosphere:
Evaluating opportunities to reduce energy consumption and use renewable energy sources wherever possible.
Materials and resources:
Using sustainable materials to enhance the building’s environmental health performance.
Indoor environmental quality:
Balancing a well day-lit, comfortable, energy efficient and non-toxic environment resulting in improved productivity and client/patient outcomes.
An additional category, Innovation in Design, addresses sustainable building expertise as well as design measures not covered under the five environmental categories. Innovative solutions for landscape design will incorporate environmental and sustainable elements.
