Posted on Friday May 09, 2014
At a special ceremony last night, Lakeridge Health was awarded a 2014 Environmental Achievement Award from the Durham Environmental Advisory Committee (DEAC). The annual awards program recognizes individual and collective efforts to promote, preserve and enhance Durham’s natural environment.
The hospital was recognized with the Eric Krause Innovation Award for its Energy Retrofit Project. The project is composed of 29 energy conservation measures that will cut Lakeridge Health’s energy costs by 23%, which will save the hospital $46 million over the 20-year life of the project and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent to taking 310 houses off the grid annually.
Highlights of the project include:
- Installing 48 solar panels at three Lakeridge Health sites;
- Replacing 24,000 lights with high-efficiency models and switching exterior lights to LEDs;
- Replacing chillers to improve efficiencies and switch to a more environmentally friendly Freon;
- Replacing boilers with more efficient models to minimize steam consumption;
- Installing an enhanced Building Automation System to improve system control;
- And the planned addition of a 1.6MW combined heat and power plant that will be fuelled by natural gas for a cleaner, more efficient production of electricity and thermal energy.
“We want every dollar possible to go into direct care for people, and we want to reduce our environmental impact. So our team has been looking for ways to both protect our environment and also save money,” says Kevin Empey, President and CEO of Lakeridge Health. “By using less energy and investing our savings into direct care this project is a win-win for our patients and for our environment. I’m delighted that the Region of Durham has presented our team with this award.”
Lakeridge Health’s efforts were also recently awarded with the Green Hospital of the Year by the Ontario Hospital Association.
