Atrium Health Lincoln
Proactive practices drive down energy consumption
Opened in 2010, Atrium Health Lincoln in Lincolnton, N.C., was driven to keep its 101-bed facility green and sustainable virtually from the start by continually making improvements.
Efforts began with reducing energy to lower health care expenses and decrease energy waste, helping to minimize the use of natural resources and lower carbon emissions. That impressive early momentum continued with proactive practices over the years that included retrocommissioning building automation systems, implementing operating room airflow setbacks and energy-efficient control sequences, and optimizing chilled water systems.
“This was extremely challenging because it touched just about every aspect of the hospital’s HVAC systems, including areas with special pressure control, such as operating rooms and sterile suites. It took months of planning, detailed execution and commissioning over short periods to ensure adequate airflow and pressurization, and minimize downtime for the surgery schedule,” says Michael D. Roberts, PE, SASHE, CHFM, SrHE, director of energy services for facilities management at Atrium Health.
Hard work pays off: Energy consumption at the facility has dropped by 35%, yielding annual energy savings of $103,000. Victories like these helped the hospital earn ENERGY STAR certification six years in a row.
Lincoln’s Green Team has made great strides in plastic elimination and waste reduction, and the campus was named an Arbor Day Foundation TreeCampus Healthcare Facility for three consecutive years.
Roberts credits Atrium Health Lincoln’s site-based plant operations and maintenance team with its winning streak of success.
“This was the first Atrium Health team to utilize the energy-reduction initiatives, and they stayed the course as we learned how best to implement these changes,” Roberts says. “Sustainability and energy efficiency take time and effort, and the path to success is one of sustained push and perseverance. The work doesn’t necessarily show immediate results, but the effort builds over time. The takeaway here is to stay vigilant, keep plugging away and, little by little, you will get buy-in from everyone involved.”
Atrium Health Mercy
Benchmarked systems and practices bring operational savings
Atrium Health Mercy in Charlotte, N.C., was spending over $1.7 million in annual energy costs a decade ago. But thanks to its diligence in adopting green systems and practices, annual energy consumption has fallen by over a third, triggering a $530,000 annual savings for the 580,000-square-foot facility.
A Sustainability Champion Award was bound to follow, as was ENERGY STAR certification five years in a row and the honor of being named an Arbor Day Foundation Tree Campus Healthcare facility four years running.
As with its sister facility in nearby Lincolnton, the journey toward sustainability started years ago with energy-reduction efforts campuswide like installing airflow setbacks in operating rooms, upgrading outmoded pneumatic HVAC controls with energy-efficient direct digital controls, and retrocommissioning different building automation systems.
Michael D. Roberts, PE, SASHE, CHFM, SrHE, director of energy services for facilities management, says that Atrium Health Mercy’s earth-friendly initiatives wouldn’t be possible without its dedicated staff.
“Plant operations and maintenance stayed the course with an older building and infrastructure. Our Green Team, in place since 2017, promotes sustainability education and action through internal platforms, social media, emails and events,” he says.
Atrium Health Mercy has long been the health care system’s designated hospital for comprehensive benchmarking via Practice Greenhealth; this benchmarking identifies areas of opportunity for greater efficiencies and provides a facility model for developing systemwide targets toward carbon-neutrality goals.
“Receiving the Sustainability Champion Award shows that sustainability efforts, which began with and were championed by the plant operations and maintenance team as energy-efficiency initiatives, have spread across the facility and now have involvement from many other departments,” Roberts says.
Atrium Health Union
Facility staff creates culture of energy efficiency
When you have a health care facility housing 248 beds and covering 558,000 square feet, preventing energy waste and keeping utility costs down is a constant challenge. Fortunately for Atrium Health Union in Monroe, N.C., its savvy sustainability squad has a keen knack for excising excess and optimizing efficiency. Their strategies have helped reduce annual energy usage at the hospital by approximately 35%.
Atrium Health Union, now ENERGY STAR-certified three years in a row, has especially benefited from participating in a systemwide Sustain the Gains initiative, spearheaded by a mechanic training program that has created a culture of energy efficiency. HVAC mechanics and technicians continue to take ownership of equipment performance, review energy data routinely, and collaborate with colleagues and vendors to improve energy efficiency.
In 2012, Atrium Health set a five-year goal of a 20% reduction in energy across the acute care portfolio, hitting this goal in 2017. This teammate education and training program has enabled the site-based plant operations and maintenance teams to drive energy reduction across the 7.5-million-square-foot acute care portfolio from the goal of 20% to 35%.
Atrium Health Union has also implemented many of the same upgrades and improvements successfully accomplished at its sister facilities, Atrium Health Lincoln and Atrium Health Mercy. And, as at those sites, the Monroe campus has a robust Green Team in place.
Energy-reduction efforts at Atrium Health Union, Atrium Health Mercy, Atrium Health Lincoln and across the enterprise have also been recognized by ENERGY STAR. In fact, Atrium Health has been awarded ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year status for six years in a row earning Sustained Excellence for the past four years.
“Established in 2021, these green champions raise awareness of Atrium Health’s sustainability vision and goals and educate teammates at the facility on how to make a difference for the environment,” says Michael D. Roberts, PE, SASHE, CHFM, SrHE, director of energy services for facilities management. “One of our objectives is for each department to have a green champion involved in the Green Team to increase multidisciplinary participation.”
The 2023 Sustainability Champion Award “recognizes our teammates for all the great work they are doing in an area that doesn’t always get the recognition it deserves,” Roberts says.
Aurora Medical Center – Oshkosh
Condensate recovery, solar panels, “food forest” and more
Part of the Aurora Health Care health system, Aurora Medical Center in Oshkosh, Wis., has emerged as a major mover and shaker in health care sustainability across the region. For proof, consider that the facility earned an ENERGY STAR score of 98 out of 100 this past year, which marks 10 years since initially achieving ENERGY STAR certification; in 2022, it was also bestowed an ASHE Energy to Care Sustained Performance Award and a Practice Greenhealth Environmental Excellence honor.
Green actions undertaken by Aurora Medical Center – Oshkosh include extensive efforts such as recovering waste condensate from rooftop cooling coils and piping to the cooling tower; installing screen- and roof-mounted photovoltaic array solar panels; replacing or upgrading brushless direct-current motors on circulating and hot water pumps; cultivating a green space “food forest” to grow fresh fruits and vegetables for team members and the community; achieving passive heat recovery on duct runs between cooler operating rooms and warmer waiting rooms; and programming the building automation system for optimal performance.
Key to the team’s success is innovation and motivation in the pursuit of continuous improvement. These initiatives were, in most cases, conceived, led and physically installed by facilities operations staff.
The approach has reduced the energy and greenhouse gas intensity by nearly half in the past 15 years to below 150 kilo British thermal units per square foot levels. This equates to removing nearly half a hospital of the same footprint from the grid.
“It’s an honor to be recognized by our peers, who understand the effort it takes to both maintain the safe operations of a medical center and reach strategic inspirational goals,” says John Habeck, manager of facilities operations for Aurora Medical Center.
Jeff Bard, hospital president, commends his staff for their exemplary efforts. “We’re committed to increasing sustainability and conserving natural resources for our communities today as well as for future generations as part of our commitment to helping people live well,” he says. “And I am proud Aurora Medical Center – Oshkosh is helping to set that precedent.”
Parkland Health – Main Campus
Massive campus improves HVAC and energy performance
Parkland Health, one of the largest public hospital systems in the nation and a Level I trauma center with 878 beds, spans a whopping 3.3 million square feet on its main campus in Dallas. That kind of real estate makes it particularly susceptible to squandered energy.
But in 2021, Parkland hired an in-house energy manager to enhance its energy performance and sustainability efforts. An energy management framework was created and initiatives were implemented that improved boiler and chiller optimization, temperature setpoints, system upgrades, demand management and renewable energy opportunities.
These efforts reduced energy consumption across the property by over 10%. Parkland Health soon became the largest ENERGY STAR-certified health care campus in the U.S., currently maintaining an ENERGY STAR score of 90.
“In 2022, Parkland received LEED Gold certification for a new 525,000-square-foot clinic building, the Moody Outpatient Center,” says Miranda Skaaning, LEED Green Associate, director of sustainability and energy conservation for Parkland Health. “Parkland also increased its total available recycling streams to over 40 types of items.”
In fact, between 2021 and 2022, the hospital’s entire energy program reaped more than $2 million in savings and increased recycling by 275 tons of waste.
“What’s particularly rewarding is being able to reduce energy consumption by 10% on a campus where the buildings have been open for seven years or less and a major retrocommissioning project had already been completed,” Skaaning says. “Our sustainability and facilities teams have put in a lot of effort to create and implement forward-thinking initiatives that improve both our bottom line and our impact on the environment.”
Erik J. Martin is a freelance writer based in Oak Lawn, Ill.
