With this school’s climate goals in mind, GreenerU designs and implements energy-saving measures that reduce emissions and increase comfort, all while minimizing disruptions to learning and research, to help in decarbonizing a medical school campus.
As one of the most prestigious medical institutions in the world, GreenerU’s medical school client continues to lead in climate change mitigation among the healthcare field. Here’s how GreenerU’s design-build climate action efforts have helped decarbonize a medical school campus.
This medical school has committed to a fossil-fuel-free campus by 2050 and fossil-fuel neutrality by 2026. Within this context, the medical school is dedicated to supporting broader campus goals by reducing greenhouse gas emissions from building energy use and operations.
In 2020, the medical school reached out to GreenerU to develop a design-build energy partnership. GreenerU worked with this client to develop a phased approach to ensure the least amount of disruption. We’ve completed four investment-grade audits and three phases of formulation and design, with construction ongoing. Using iterative processes of investment-grade audits, formulation and design, construction, and commissioning (or retrocommissioning), these projects included a mix of energy efficiency and more substantial building renovation projects that support the School’s larger energy and carbon goals.
One of the first steps toward decarbonizing a medical school campus is addressing lighting. GreenerU started the program in 2021 by designing and implementing more than two million gross square feet of LED lighting and Lutron Vive lighting controls spanning the entire medical campus. This included developing new campus standards for LED lighting color temperatures, light levels, daylighting, and occupancy controls.
LED lighting not only consumes 50–70% less energy than do traditional incandescent bulbs; they also provide optimal lighting for working conditions. With thoughtful design and collaboration, lighting levels and types were calibrated to be neither too bright, which can lead to emotional sensitivity, nor too dim, which can contribute to fatigue.
The addition of lighting controls that can be connected to building automation systems help manage energy use depending on whether the spaces are in use or unoccupied. This means building managers can easily tweak lighting output, use motion sensors to determine when a building is in use (or not).
The medical school also worked with contractors to develop an exterior lighting project that covers a full range of custom and high-end fixture styles. As of May 2024, twelve of the School’s fifteen buildings have undergone complete LED lighting retrofits.
Another component of decarbonizing a medical school campus is implementing energy conservation measures, in particular air-side heat-recovery projects in two buildings. This captured heat is reused to warm fresh incoming air, reducing the need for additional heating energy. By leveraging the “recycling” process, the system significantly reduces energy consumption and costs, a key component in the School’s overall energy strategy.
One building, which houses laboratories for genetics, pathology, and neurobiology, as well as blood research, had an existing glycol heat recovery system that served six main air-handling units and associated exhaust fans, but the system was out of date. The School worked with BR+A Consulting Engineers to develop a new valve-and-pump design and GreenerU to manage installation and recommissioning. GreenerU was provided with a project summary, specification, and schematic design drawing set, which we evaluated for cost, savings, and feasibility before moving on to formulation and design. To upgrade the system, we installed control valves for each air handling unit, changed the three-way bypass valve to two-way, added variable frequency drives on the glycol pumps, and installed balancing valves on each air-handling unit coil system to enable a more consistent and sensitive heat exchange.
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Similarly, a research building on campus uses waste heat recapture from a process cooling loop serving environmental room compressors. Process cooling helps maintain constant fluid temperature and flow regardless of the load, which is especially important for use in medical imaging equipment. It’s also useful for using different fluid types to maintain different temperatures. This building’s process loop was reconfigured to transfer waste heat to the heat-recovery loop during cold-weather conditions, reducing energy use from steam.
Yet another energy-savings project is wrapping up: the same research building has a new heat recovery chiller. The new chiller will be capable of supplying year-round fan-coil-unit chilled-water load while simultaneously serving both the lab and animal facility reheat loops. The 100%-outdoor airstream needed for the labs must be cooled and dehumidified for much of the year, and under the old system, waste heat from this process was escaping through the cooling towers. Meanwhile, the building was relying on steam and hot water to reheat the cooled outdoor air to maintain lab temperatures. Now, the new chiller’s waste heat will replace steam and hot water to maintain temperature and comfort throughout the building.
Altogether, our recent LED lighting and heat recovery projects amount to more than 11% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions overall at the medical school over a 2021 baseline. This is on top of a 31% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (measured in metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, or MTCO2e) since the School began tracking its efforts in 2006. When it comes to decarbonizing a medical school campus, GreenerU is your green GC partner.
GreenerU’s experience working with sensitive research, teaching, and clinical care environments means we take great care to design and manage energy-efficiency and decarbonization projects with minimal disruption and with the greatest benefits to the individuals who work and study in these buildings. Contact us today for more information on how we might help plan and implement a lower-carbon future on your campus.