Hospital room

Joseph Brant Hospital’s Michael Lee-Chin and Family Patient Tower Achieves LEED Silver

Posted on Posted in Energy Modelling, Healthcare, Measurement and Verification

The Michael Lee-Chin and Family Patient Tower at Joseph Brant Hospital has successfully achieved LEED Silver certification. Alongside project team member Ellis Don, Footprint provided energy modelling, as well as measurement and verification services for this addition.

“Footprint joined the design and construction team well into the design process, emphasizing the importance of team collaboration throughout the design-build process for this $430-million healthcare project,” said Lyle Scott, Founding Principal of Footprint.

In order to meet the sustainability targets of the project, the Patient Tower adopted a holistic sustainability strategy that focussed on:

  • Minimizing the environmental impact of the design;
  • Providing a healthy indoor environment for patients and staff; and,
  • Optimizing the addition’s location in an urban, walkable, and connected area of Burlington, Ontario.

The sustainability strategy reduced the Patient Tower’s impact on the local ecosystem via heat-island mitigation, which included white and vegetative roof strategies and a reduction in peak stormwater volume and quantity. Energy efficient mechanical and electrical systems and equipment, a comprehensive metering strategy, and an integrated commissioning and operator training program were implemented and leveraged to monitor and manage energy use over the lifetime of the building.

Such energy performance optimization strategies modelled 26 per cent energy cost savings compared to an ASHRAE 90.1-2007 baseline building.

The seven-storey Michael Lee-Chin and Family Patient Tower doubled the size of Joseph Brant Hospital. The tower features an emergency department, an intensive care unit, an expanded cancer clinic, expanded medical, surgical, and outpatient services, nine operating rooms, and 172 acute care in-patient beds with private washrooms.

Footprint is a highly-specialized team of engineers, planners, architects, designers, and sustainability professionals. With offices across Canada, Footprint provides an evolving list of services, including sustainability certification, energy modelling, measurement and verification, energy management, and daylighting analysis. The Footprint team draws extensively from their technical background and experience on a diverse range of projects – many of which are leading national examples of sustainable design. The team has earned the trust of public and private clients in markets across Canada, providing reliable yet innovative solutions at every project stage. A proud member of The Smith + Andersen Group of Companies, Footprint’s foundations lie in technical expertise gained from a proven consulting engineering firm. For further information, please visit sa-footprint.com.