Owners and operators of NHS buildings over 10 years old are being encouraged to participate in a research project, “Making existing healthcare buildings sustainable”, that will gauge how “sustainably” the buildings are operating, identify changes in thinking on sustainable building design and operation over the past decade, and determine how the NHS estate can be made “greener” in future.
The SHINE Learning Network for Sustainable Healthcare Buildings, jointly run by CIRIA, the Sustainable Development Foundation, and Forum for the Future, wants to hear from Trusts with buildings over a decade old keen to participate in the project. It is seeking to identify at least one primary care facility, one acute facility, and one “other” healthcare building in each of two categories – buildings “substantially refurbished” in the past five years where good energy data is available, and those not yet refurbished, but where major refurbishment is planned in the next two, so that researchers can visit the premises, and analyse the buildings’ environmental performance to discover where energy is being consumed. The resulting data will be used, where possible, to quantify changes (for instance in post and pre-renovation energy use), measure the environmental performance of refurbished and non-refurbished buildings, and contrast the findings. Recommendations on refurbishment measures that can improve environmental performance across a wide range of NHS buildings (many are over 10 years old) will then be disseminated. Organisations keen to participate should contact CIRIA’s Catherine Haynes. Email: Catherine.haynes@ciria.org; T: 0207 549 3300.
