JOINT IHEEM NI AND ROI 2022 CONFERENCE ‘‘
William Walsh said SEAI’s key objective was ‘to collaborate with others to drive climate action, helping our public sector partners find their decarbonisation pathways’.
cited the energy efficiency design training provided by SEAI to HSE design team consultants. SEAI trainers had also trained 320 Energy Team staff in implementing energy-efficient design, while SEAI and HSE had run several Energy Management Action Plan training programmes.
Retrofits Turning the spotlight on retrofits, he explained that, since 2019, SEAI has supported such schemes on over 170 sites across Ireland. These have included lighting and fabric upgrades, the installation of more efficient services, and solar pilots – including the development of ‘Pathfinder Projects’, where SEAI was considering technical and financial solutions to achieve its 2030 targets, ‘and how they can be replicated’. Adding that ‘pushing the boundaries, and embracing innovation’, were ‘embedded in HSE’s climate action journey’, William Walsh said HSE was about to launch its Energy Strategy, setting out how it would achieve its 2030 targets. He explained: “SEAI has worked closely with Peter Smyth and John Reilly to analyse the opportunities, and particularly to close the gap on the HSE’s greenhouse gas targets.” The speaker’s next slide was about
‘Context for 2022’. He said: “COVID has been tough on many of us, but has also shown us how we can react cohesively in an emergency, and gives us hope in tackling the climate emergency. We will need to look at the lessons learned to match the ambitions set on climate action.” He continued: “Dean Sullivan said when he spoke earlier that ‘the climate crisis is a health crisis’; we need to bring the same sense of urgency to it as we’ve seen with the health crisis, delivering solutions and influencing lasting behavioural change.”
The 7% per annum average emissions reductions targets set in the programme for Government for delivery every year will be challenging for every sector, but none more so than healthcare. We will each be held to account for delivering our share of the targets, and there will have to be clear reductions in actual energy use
Carbon budgets Looking next at ‘Evolving for the future’ and at ‘Carbon budgets’, the SEAI speaker said the focus was ‘shifting from energy efficiency to decarbonisation with the new area of sectoral carbon budgets’. Organisations were starting to understand the scale of these challenges – the carbon budgets were significant, and would require reductions, ‘not just efficiency gains.’ William Walsh said: “Operational savings will be the key, and our primary focus – building on the work to date, and applying learnings from our public sector Pathfinder retrofit projects. For example,” he added, “take the learnings from the installation of renewable heat in a very regulated industry such as healthcare, and then apply them to the likes of higher education laboratories. We can share these learnings with other public sector organisations such as education, local authorities, and others. For example, HSE, with SEAI’s support, has demonstrated the benefits of forming an Energy Bureau to local authorities. That’s hugely powerful for us.” The speaker said healthcare estate management would evolve, ‘just as we’ve seen with the HSE – transforming from an energy champion to an Energy Bureau, with dedicated expertise leading to carbon emission reductions’. As the sector evolved, personnel within it would need to review and check the data to understand the next steps, through data gathering and analysis, ‘to identify opportunities and pathways forward using current technologies’. He said: “For example, in developing its Energy Strategy, the HSE has identified that by retrofitting and then decarbonising its top 120 buildings, it will achieve its 51% greenhouse gas emissions reductions by 2050. The first 10 buildings funded by the Pathfinder programme will demonstrate the technologies and other learnings that will be used to scale up and retrofit and decarbonise the remaining building stock.”
Extending the journey William Walsh’s next slide was about ‘extending the journey’. Believing ‘healthcare estates’ could play a leading role in societal transformation to a low carbon future, he said he had ‘five opportunities for the HSE to consider’.
He elaborated: “Firstly, the HSE has an opportunity to sign up with SEAI and the new Public Sector Decarbonisation Agreements, and to continue to be a champion for the public sector. Secondly, the HSE is likely to be a significant stakeholder, and an important anchor key user for any future district heating schemes in Ireland.” SEAI’s recent launch of the National Heat study – ‘the most comprehensive study of heat demand ever undertaken in Ireland’ – had signalled the need to accelerate the roll-out of district heat, with the HSE asked to be part of this. Thirdly, healthcare estates had the opportunity to lead societal transformation to a low carbon future, but the key was to remain focused on the operational ‘big wins’ to achieve significant carbon savings. Healthcare estates teams would also need to continue focusing on delivering excellence to the Pathfinder programmes, and demonstrating how building retrofits ‘can deliver real emission savings for the public sector in Ireland’.
Energy efficiency design practices This would, he stressed, require them to continue both their ‘excellent energy efficiency design practices’ – which would ‘transform the design of the healthcare services’, and their energy efficiency management practices, and achieve ISO 50001 as one of the largest public sector users. He said: “The fourth challenge is to retain focus, to keep on track in delivering carbon targets, leveraging existing energy management systems, technologies, and knowledge.” The ‘fifth opportunity’, meanwhile, was for SEAI and HSE’s management teams to collaborate even further, as the country entered a new era of carbon budgets, ‘mapping out the best routes for the HSE through this climate crisis’. William Walsh concluded: “I look forward
to the publication of the HSE Energy Strategy, and encourage you all to keep the pathway in sight. Our targets are a North Star in guiding decisions on climate action, and SEAI is here to support and collaborate with you on this journey. Act now for 2030, and plan for 2050.” With that he closed his address, and wished delegates a good remainder of the event.
September 2022 Health Estate Journal 25
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112
