SUSTAINABILITY CLARE TATTERSALL – EDITOR, CHES MAGAZINE, CANADIAN HEALTHCARE FACILITIES, CANADA


Hospital sustainability programme validated


Clare Tattersall examines the wide-ranging measures that staff at the Markham Stouffville Hospital in Markham, Ontario, have taken to raise the healthcare facility’s environmental performance and sustainability credentials since it opened nearly three decades ago.


Markham Stouffville Hospital (MSH) may not be the newest hospital in Ontario, but it’s on track to become one of the most environmentally friendly. Comprised of three sites, totalling over one million square feet in size, the community healthcare facility has a progressive greening and sustainability programme, which earned it the Wayne McLellan Excellence in Healthcare Facilities Management Award, in 2018. (This Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES) award recognises facilities that have had outstanding success in the completion of a major capital project, an energy efficiency or environmental stewardship programme, or in a team- building exercise). Since opening its doors in 1990, MSH


has steadily raised its environmental performance and reduced energy, water, and waste costs, while maintaining or exceeding high quality patient care. Some of its green initiatives leading up to the award win include: rescheduling more than 40 air-handling units to meet occupancy needs, resulting in more than 1.2 gigawatts (GW) of power savings; retrofitting the hallway and corridors in two buildings with LED lights – which has resulted in 204,791 kilowatt hours (kWh) in energy savings, and conducting a steam trap audit and changing out more than 30 defective traps, producing a saving of 94,146 cubic metres of gas. Energy efficiency projects implemented thus far have saved more


Markham Stouffville Hospital is a leading community hospital with 329 beds in Markham, Ontario, which provides diagnostic and emergency services, and delivers clinical programmes in acute care medicine and surgery, addictions and mental health, and childbirth and children’s services.


than C$400,000, with monies invested back into additional conservation measures, as well as patient care. Results to date, not including water, have also shown a reduction of 354 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.


Four additional projects Four additional projects – which the hospital has recently received funding


Clare Tattersall


Clare Tattersall is the Editor of Canadian Healthcare Facilities, the official publication of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES). She has served as a senior-level editor for multiple industry-leading magazines throughout her 13-year


career in the publishing industry. She holds an honours degree from the University of Toronto, and a post-graduate diploma in journalism.


for, will further minimise the hospital’s carbon footprint by 1,918 metric tonnes. “Finding money to improve energy and


utility costs can be challenging,” explained Allan Kelly, MSH plant Maintenance manager. “In a hospital environment, these types of projects rarely get priority during capital spending discussions, so we explored alternative funding opportunities, which brought us to OntarioBuys.” Established in 2004, this provincial


government initiative provides financial resources to projects that help broader public sector organisations adopt innovation, achieve benefits, and improve operational efficiency in supply chain and back office processes. Projects must meet, or demonstrate how they will meet, specific criteria in order to qualify for funding. OntarioBuys typically pays for up to 75 per cent of eligible project costs; however, projects that emphasise innovation or leading-edge themes


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