Design guidelines improve sustainability
Building design, including the construction, demolition and planned operations of spaces, is an important topic in the field of sustainability. Building design impacts greenhouse gas emissions, water use, waste management and even active transportation.
“Green” buildings take into consideration the health and safety of their occupants as well as the building’s impact on the environment. In 2020, the medical center revised its building design guidelines for new construction and major renovations. This revision process included enhancing the med center’s sustainability criteria. These changes in designing, constructing and operating spaces will help the med center reach its 2030 sustainability goals and will create a safer, healthier workplace for colleagues.
With these new requirements, all building design projects over $1 million must meet the requirements for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) v4 Gold Certification. While formal certification is not required, the framework and criteria needed to achieve LEED v4 Gold raises the bar for design processes, practices and building performance. Buildings designed to LEED standards have cleaner air (both inside the building and out), more natural lighting and fewer harmful chemicals. According to the U.S. Green Building Council, “improving indoor air quality can reduce absenteeism and work hours affected by asthma, respiratory allergies, depression and stress, and leads to and self-reported improvements in productivity”.
Below are just a few of the sustainability requirements in the new guidelines:
- Sustainable sites
- Harvest 95% of rainwater on site with green infrastructure and low impact development strategies
- Reduce heat island effects and light pollution
- Energy
- Demonstrate via energy modeling that the project achieves the Med Center’s energy targets
- Water use
- Reduce indoor potable water use by 35%
- Provide water filtration for potable sources
- Reduction of water use outdoors by at least 50% using the EPA’s WaterSense Water Budget tool
Webinar Thursday
To hear more about sustainable building design and its positive impacts on health and the planet, attend a LiveGreen webinar on Thursday, July 22, from 11 to 11:30 a.m. Lindsay Neemann, whose team has been leading the charge in creating and implementing the med center’s Green Design Guidelines, will discuss the sustainability features included in new construction, as well as the general process for incorporating sustainability into architecture projects. Join here at 11 a.m. Thursday.
World Population DaY
Last Sunday, July 11, was World Population Day. This day was first recognized in 1987 to bring awareness to the importance of population issues. There are currently 7.8 billion people in the world, and the population is projected to continue growing until 2100.
Instead of looking at the issues surrounding the growing population, we can look at some opportunities.
With a growing population comes more motivation to protect the environment. Currently, Earth’s Overshoot Day is July 29, meaning by that day humanity has consumed “nature’s budget” for the year. As natural resources are being depleted at a faster rate than ever before, and our land and oceans are increasingly polluted, consuming less is critical.
The good news is, there are plenty of ways individuals can help make a collective impact. Use this ecological footprint calculator to estimate your own impact and discover ways to reduce your footprint, including:
- Using public transportation, carpooling or riding a bike;
- Eating locally grown food and consuming fewer animal-based products;
- Adopting energy efficiency practices, like turning off lights when not in use or purchasing appliances with Energy Star labels; and
- Recycling or composting instead of sending trash to the landfill.
By reducing your footprint, not only are you helping the environment and the future population, but your own and others’ health. For example, biking and walking reduce your chance for heart disease, diabetes and cancer. By choosing more locally produced non-processed foods, you’re consuming less saturated fat, sugar and salt, which reduces your risk of stroke, diabetes and many different cancers. And all of the strategies above help reduce air pollution and emissions, which means lower risk of respiratory disease and a healthier environment.
World Population Day reminds us that there are billions of people on Earth. By lowering your carbon footprint, you’re helping ensure there are resources for everyone, now and into the future. Check out this list of organizations that are working to solve population issues, and learn more about how population growth impacts our planet.
Project reduced energy use
Reducing energy use is an important part of the medical center’s effort to achieve net zero building emissions by 2030.
In February of 2020, a local energy management firm partnered with the department of facilities, management and planning to optimize the Lauritzen Outpatient Center with this goal in mind. The six-month project helped make the building more efficient and correct pressure issues, which were most noticeable in the walkway between the Lauritzen Outpatient Center and the UNMC Center for Drug Discovery. More lighting controls also were installed, all of which helped the med center reduce emissions.
In buildings that have operating rooms and labs, there are different air requirements to keep everyone safe. More air is exhausted outside and is replaced with fresh, conditioned air. Replacing the air faster in these spaces not only uses more energy but sometimes can create pressure issues. Because almost all buildings on campus are connected, you can often feel a “breeze” in smaller spaces, like hallways and walkways.
The energy optimization project examined the programming of all HVAC systems to ensure proper functionality and appropriate conditioning of spaces. Occupants should be comfortable during the day, but systems can be slowed during unoccupied times in order to save energy. Alongside the optimization project, new lighting sensors were installed to adjust lighting levels based on number of occupants in a space.
With the changes from this project, the med center reduced energy use by 3.7 million KBtus and saved more than $103,000 in just the first year. The facilities department expects energy savings to continue and cost avoidance to increase as well. The emissions impact from this reduction in energy use is equivalent to removing 167 passenger vehicles from the road for one year.
Reducing emissions from energy use contributes to the med center’s mission to create a healthy future for all. Emissions cause a variety of health impacts, including cancer, asthma, respiratory allergies, foodborne disease, mental health disorders and more.
Facilities will continue to work on optimizing buildings on campus, and there are many ways you can help. Discover steps you can take during the work day or ways to implement energy saving strategies at home.
International Plastic Bag Free Day is July 3
Did you know that 5 trillion plastic bags are produced annually? If they were put end to end, those plastic bags would wrap around the entire planet seven times!
This Saturday, July 3, is International Plastic Bag Free Day, an initiative that aims to eliminate plastic bags as part of an effort toward a cleaner planet. Plastic has become a very prevalent topic in the past few years because it is a huge problem when it comes to pollution and the health and well-being of the Earth, and especially our oceans.
As of February 2021, only eight states and a few cities in the U.S. have banned plastic bags in supermarkets and businesses. Other states have begun using different types of compostable/ biodegradable bags or have incorporated reward systems for bringing in reusable bags. Even with efforts like these to reduce the use of plastic bags, the bags and other plastic waste are harming the environment at an alarming rate.
Any plastic bag ever used is still degrading and will likely continue to degrade for 1,000 years or longer. After that, it breaks down into microplastics and fibers, which absorb toxins and can get washed into the ocean, where sea animals often mistake them for food. Recent studies show large amounts of microplastics and fibers in sea animals’ guts, which directly correlate to human health if humans consume any type of seafood. There still are some uncertainties around the negative effects of humans ingesting plastic, but some might include: cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic inflammation and stroke.
Any type of plastic, whether it’s plastic bags or plastic water bottles, is detrimental to the environment and ecosystems. If plastic doesn’t get washed into the ocean, it can get into other water systems or into soil which also circles back into our supply of drinking water and our food.
Overall, plastic use is still increasing. To learn more about the effects of plastic and what you can do, check out the following resources:
- An informational Prezi presentation highlighting the most common plastics used at home and how to eliminate them.
- Plastic-Free webinar with the med center’s own Brian Jefferies, who has almost completely eliminated plastic in his household.
- The med center’s Plastic Free Ecochallenge team — From July 1-31, you can pledge to take specific actions to reduce plastic in your life.
Recycling event a success
This year, the medical center was fortunate to have its annual recycling event during Earth Month as usual, in partnership with the University of Nebraska at Omaha.
Over the course of the two-day event in April, materials received included:
- 471 lbs. of assorted media (VHS tapes, DVDs, CDs and floppy disks);
- 7,466 lbs. of electronic waste;
- 3,910 lbs. of paper for shredding;
- 190 lbs. of alkaline batteries (approximately 2,500 batteries); and
- 3.5 lbs. of rechargeable/button batteries
That’s 12,040 total pounds diverted from the landfill. That impact equates to approximately:
- 31 trees saved
- 163 gallons of oil not used
- 367,212 hours of electricity saved
- 4,971 gallons of water conserved
Also donated:
- $800 and a carload of food to the Maverick Food Pantry;
- A blue recycling bin full of eyeglasses to the Truhlsen Eye Clinic; and
- Three boxes of pop tabs to Ronald McDonald House.
Event organizers offered a “thank you” to volunteers Mithla Albulushi, Marion Entz-Harris, Helga Fensterman, Sarah Fleenor, Elizabeth Hill, Sushma Kolumban, Jessica Macossay, SarahMcLain, Leracha Simon, Lacy Snyder and Jennifer Wemhoff.
This year’s collected waste was about half the amount collected last year, when nearly 29,000 lbs. of material for recycling was collected. That’s not bad news, though — during the first few months of the pandemic, lots of people cleaned out their houses, which meant they were looking for ways to responsibly dispose of materials in 2020. This year, plenty of materials still were diverted from the landfill.
Alongside proper disposal of items like the ones collected in April, there is more that everyone can do to reduce waste with regard to paper and technology. To reduce environmental impact and save money, do some research before buying products to see how long the product will last. Consider spending more for something that will last longer.
Other ways to reduce waste include printing less, unsubscribing from mailing lists and upgrading to rechargeable batteries. Reducing waste is a crucial first step, while recycling is an important last step, for ensuring waste is disposed of responsibly.
Sustainability win with reusable isolation gowns
While essential, personal protective equipment (PPE) produces a large volume of waste.
Nebraska Medicine has created a practical way to reuse their isolation gowns that reduces this waste. In 2000 when Nebraska Medicine’s laundry facility closed, Nebraska Medicine partnered with Ameritex Laundry Services (a Healthcare Accredited Laundromat) and sent their isolation gowns and other linens to be washed and then reused.
After the gowns are used at the medical center, they are transported to Ameritex laundry. Once they are diligently washed, gowns are stored at a warehouse until they are ordered back to the medical center. On top of the usual cleaning, gowns also are put through an impermeability treatment once a month. As long as the gowns do not endure any tears, they can be reused more than 100 times. When the gowns do get torn, Ameritex Services rags out the linens for reuse. The ragged-out linens are then dropped off to Peerless Wiping Cloths. This company repurposes the linens into wiping cloths and Nebraska Medicine receives a small payment of $0.05 per pound for these recycled linens.
Even with the cost of replacing isolation gowns that are damaged or going missing, the process saves Nebraska Medicine money. Not only can linen gowns be reused over 100 times, but the system does not need to pay for the collection and transportation to a landfill or a landfill fee.
Because Nebraska Medicine is reusing gowns, around 2,000 disposable gowns don’t have to be purchased on a daily basis. During the height of the pandemic, with increased PPE needs, around 10,000 disposable gowns a day didn’t have to be purchased, although due to an increased demand, some new linen gowns were procured. The pandemic created a large demand for isolation gowns with a limited supply, so disposable gowns were as much as 10 times as expensive at times, while linen gowns remained the same price. Being able to reuse many gowns quickly not only saved the system money, but freed up disposable gowns for other health systems to purchase.
Reusing gowns diverts tons of waste from landfills and uses much less energy than what is required to harvest raw materials, manufacture and ship disposable gowns. Not only is this process beneficial for the environment, it creates a structure resilient to disturbances like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Med center in energy curtailment
UNMC and the Nebraska Medical Center will be in energy curtailment through Friday. The goal of energy curtailment periods is to use less energy on days when the combined heat and humidity create stress on campus energy systems.
The Energy Curtailment page of LiveGreen provides a full explanation, but you should no longer be freezing cold in your office during energy curtailment. Please note that when you first walk in it will still feel cool.
In the past, many of you felt cold on curtailment days. It seemed backward, that you would save energy by having it be colder in spaces when it was so hot out. It was an effective way to save energy and money though — it’s inefficient to produce heat when it’s hot out, and that’s what we were doing. By not producing that heat, some spaces felt cold.
Due to updated technology, spaces will not need to be pre-cooled to as cold of temperatures as in the past in order to see the energy savings. This does mean that your space will likely get warmer in the afternoon. For example, instead of finding your space at 67 degrees when you arrive, it could be at 70. In the afternoon, instead of being at 72, it will be 75.
Not only does this tend to mirror what happens in a residential situation, but it is also overwhelmingly what you, the building occupants, have requested. You were cold sitting at your desk and would rather have it be a little warmer and we are happy to report that this is now possible.
The med center has a temperature range to maintain. Please call 402-552-3347 (Nebraska Medicine) or 402-559-4050 (UNMC) to report spaces colder than 66 degrees or warmer than 78 degrees.
Patient care and research spaces are not affected by energy curtailment. Read how you can help save energy during curtailment and always.
World Oceans Day
Today is World Oceans Day — a day essentially as important as Earth Day, considering how much the ocean supports humanity and all other organisms on earth.
Oceanic and human life are both at great risk as the climate continues to change. Oceans cover 70% of the earth, absorb 93% of the heat from the sun and capture 30% of the carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Forty percent of the world’s population lives within 60 miles of the coast, and half a billion people rely on the ocean for their primary food intake. Taking all these statistics into account, it’s easy to see how human survival is directly correlated with oceanic survival.
We already have seen drastic changes in oceans’ water levels, pH and currents, all of which are huge components in sea life and human survival.
- As water levels continue to rise, there will be more deadly storm surges and flooding. This has specific impacts on coastal states, but landlocked states also will be impacted when it comes to seafood consumption, agriculture production, population control issues and more.
- The ocean’s pH already has changed from about 8.2 to now 8.1. This doesn’t seem like a huge decrease, but because it’s measured logarithmically, it is an enormous change. The ocean is nearly 25% more acidic now than it was before the Industrial Revolution. With this increase in acidity, some species are not able to survive, which throws off the entire ecosystem.
- Ocean currents are starting to change in direction and size. This makes water from different regions mix together, affecting the temperature of the ocean and ultimately having significant impact on the weather.
The overwhelming amount of changes already occurring causes concern, but luckily there are many groups helping to bring attention to the issues in our oceans. Visit the World Oceans Day website to find resources on where to learn more. Also, check out Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s interview with Ezra Klein to learn more about the role of oceans in our lives and in the fight against climate change.
By helping protect the ocean, we also are helping protect the human population and our health.
World Environment Day is June 5
This Saturday, June 5, is World Environment Day. This day was founded in 1972, and in the following years, a platform was created to raise awareness about the many problems facing the environment. Some of these problems include air pollution, plastic pollution, sea level increase and food security.
Every year, a theme is declared that focuses on one major issue. This year, it’s ecosystem restoration. The diversity and wellbeing of our ecosystems correlate with the health and wellbeing of the human population, through benefits such as more fertile soils, bigger yields of timber and fish, the storage of greenhouse gas emissions and more.
Ecosystem restoration ties in with the 17 United Nations Sustainable Goals in a number of ways. Two goals impacted by this year’s theme are “Life Below Water” and “Good Health and Well-Being.”
Restoration to ecosystems below water is important considering water covers 71% of the earth’s surface. Climate change already has significant impacts on oceans, and millions of tons of plastic waste is being dumped into the water — with detrimental effects on all ecosystems. If there are drastic changes to the ecosystems below water, there will be negative effects to human health and wellbeing. For example, seafood will become contaminated as animals consume the waste that’s piling up in the oceans. One slight change in the aquatic ecosystem can have a domino effect on all other ecosystems in the environment. With restoration to ecosystems below water, our oceans, land and air will be cleaner, and human health and wellbeing will flourish.
There are many subcategories of ecosystems that are being focused on this year for World Environment Day, like farmlands, forests, freshwaters, grasslands and savanna’s, mountains, oceans and coasts, peatlands and all urban areas. On the World Environment Day webpage, you can play a game and choose which ecosystem you want to learn more about, get updates on what is happening and pledge to act.
How you decide to commemorate World Environment Day this year — whether it’s educating yourself and others or taking actions to help make our ecosystems healthier — can have a lasting impact on not only the health and wellbeing of our planet but also all of the people living on it.
Energy curtailment
Energy curtailment allows the university to control its maximum energy demand, or “peak.”
By reducing unnecessary energy use, the university can ensure that essential energy needs are met. Lower energy means lower emissions, better air quality and better health for the community – the Med Center’s mission. It also saves the Med Center money, as utility rates are based on peak use. The maximum of energy used at any given time determines the rate the Med Center pays for the entire next year.
Updating technology has allowed the Med Center to control this process better. Spaces that were previously cold will be affected differently by energy curtailment. They will still be pre-cooled at night. “Pre-cooling” is a literal term — spaces are cooled in the early morning before people arrive. This also is when energy use is lower across campus, and before the sun shines and temperatures increase. Spaces are often cooled below the temperature set on the thermostat, which makes it easier for the system to keep up once the heat and humidity are in full effect.
However, these spaces will not need to be pre-cooled this year to such a cold temp to see the energy savings. This does mean that your space will likely get a little warmer in the afternoon. Not only does this tend to mirror what happens in a residential situation, it is overwhelmingly what you, the building occupants, requested.
Research and patient care areas are not impacted by energy curtailment.
We need your help! When we are in energy curtailment, we’ll ask you to help ease the energy load:
- Close shades, blinds and curtains whenever possible to reduce solar heat gain. (Did you know this can decrease the temperature by more than 20 degrees?);
- Lower lighting levels where possible, turn off lights in unoccupied areas and when leaving a room;
- Turn off and unplug all electrical equipment not in use (computers, coffee makers, printers, chargers, etc.);
- Shut fume hood sashes when not in use. (This does not decrease safety; fans are always running, but can slow down with a smaller opening, which is why it is quieter);
- Open doors manually instead of using the ADA buttons;
- Take the stairs instead of the elevator; and
- Tell others.
These easy steps combine to have a huge impact, on the hot days and for the year ahead.
