The exceptional work of Grand River Hospital’s facilities team has led to a much greener Freeport Campus.
The Greening Health Care program (opens in a new window) of Toronto and Region Conservation has recognized Freeport for achieving a 26.2 per cent saving in electricity, water and natural gas consumption over five years.
“This is a tremendous credit to our facilities team members who have done so much to improve energy usage throughout our buildings,” said Malcolm Maxwell, Grand River Hospital’s president and CEO. “The dollars they save allow us to better support direct patient care, while their efforts help us to become better environmental stewards.”
GRH achieved the recognition by making the following changes:
- Optimizing the facility’s building automation systems that control heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC);
- Installing variable frequency drives on all HVAC systems and heating pumps, improving efficiency by reducing energy use in unoccupied spaces during off hours;
- Replacing approximately 200 lights to energy-efficient LED models; and
- Reducing water usage through the use of laminar flow aerators and low-flow flush valves.
“We’re happy to be involved with Greening Health Care as our partnership allows us to continuously learn new and better ways of making our buildings more efficient,” said Kevin Wilson, GRH’s director of facilities. “Our staff members have taken this information and done an outstanding job in improving energy efficiency.”
“Our facilities staff members are constantly bringing us ideas to help save on energy. We receive rebates from our utility providers on our approved energy projects. We reinvest these rebates into new energy saving projects,” added Greg Donnell, GRH facilities manager.
