Overview:
Healthcare facilities do much more than just house patients and equipment. They provide an atmosphere where patients can heal, patients’ families can feel comfortable and healthcare professionals can do their best to care for the community. Green Building is the practice of creating an environment using environmentally sustainable and health-focused design and construction methods. The ultimate goal is to provide a healthier, more productive indoor environment while lowering maintenance costs and reducing energy consumption. To achieve green design and construction, hospitals work with third-party, certification-based systems, such as the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED).
Goals 2023:
- Design the new Pediatric Emergency Department
- Explore using pre-finished vinyl flooring during patient room renovation to eliminate use of strip and wax.
Highlights:
In 2022, we opened the Pediatric Garden, which allows patients and their families to appreciate the outdoors when possible, as studies have shown the connection to nature nurtures patients. The garden incorporates good sustainability design practices and provides access to daylight.
We use flooring, wall coverings, paints, mats, finishes, furniture, and exterior materials that avoid chemicals of concern. We will continue to explore the use of pre-finished vinyl flooring during patient room renovations to reduce or eliminate use of “strip and wax” with the process’s less than desirable chemicals.
All facility projects are designed in accordance with LEED Silver Rating. Filing With USGBC is determined by owner, upon which a 3rd party consultant or accredited facility representative is engaged to ensure the project maximizes all LEED rating categories wherever possible. The selected project team(design team) supports the 3rd party consultant while working with contractor and/or owner to ensure project specifications are met to achieve desired LEED Certifications.
The hospital has many green spaces throughout the campus which surround staff and patients with areas that change with the seasons. The facility and its various buildings are nestled in heavily wooded areas amongst mature trees and local fauna. Many of the entrances are lined with potted plantings as well as an abundance of flower beds that welcome staff and patients alike into our buildings. We have a memorial garden that provides tranquility for individuals to reflect surrounded by greenery with a memorial brick garden and the outdoor plaza decks have plantings that are sustainable and native to the Long Island region for staff and patients to enjoy throughout the day. A vegetable garden is generated and maintained by facility staff that grows and produces fruits and vegetables that are used in meal preparation served in our main cafeteria for the enjoyment of our patients, staff, and visitors.
We recently completed the HSC Deck Repair Project which included the repair of the plaza decks and enhanced sustainable roof and drainage. Enhanced the existing plaza decks with a sustainable roof, repaired roofs, and drainage. Planted sustainable plantings. Installed a labyrinth for patients, visitors faculty and staff usage.
The new MART building is one of Stony Brook’s LEED-rated buildings. LEED buildings are constructed of sustainable materials, and incorporate systems that reduce energy and water consumption, improve indoor air quality, and reduce waste. LEED-rated buildings have a smaller carbon footprint than other buildings of similar size. Location within a natural setting is key to the MART/Bed Tower’s broader sustainability within the community. Stormwater quality and quantity are controlled on-site. Eighty-seven percent of all total suspended solids are removed from the stormwater through underground detention and infiltration basins. This regionally significant achievement boasts a decrease in stormwater runoff from the project for post-construction measures.
Stony Brook’s natural setting allows for four-and-a half times the building footprint to be used as vegetated open space.
By locating the MART within the larger Stony Brook Medicine and University campus, the project enjoys shared services and a developed transportation infrastructure. Pedestrian and bicycle paths, along with access to quality public transportation, increase the connection to the community through low impact transportation. Shared services make the MART part of a walkable community and limit vehicular trips.
Stony Brook MART and Hospital Pavilion were constructed with sustainability sourced materials throughout the construction process. Steel was brought in by railroad, to limit negative effects from over-the-road transportation of goods. Recycled materials in the concrete and steel helped increase the project’s total recycled content. All building materials and furniture items were selected with low or no volatile organic compounds, in order to eliminate off-gassing in the building’s interior. Further requirements were placed on building materials to limit persistent bio accumulative toxin sources for mercury, lead, cadmium, and copper. Collectively, these achievements improve indoor air quality, and create a healthy environment for patients and visitors.
Studies have shown that patient healing is improved in environments that incorporate nature and natural surroundings. The MART/Hospital Pavilion’s regularly occupied areas have a view to the outdoors for 94.43 percent of the spaces. Additionally, we are in the final changes of the development of a pediatric garden which will allow pediatric patients and their families more access to the outdoors, and the benefits associated with such access, during their stay.
The project is saving 35 percent water in the interior uses through low flow and flush fixtures, along with building processes that use water over a typical healthcare facility. Building equipment was selected to use machines that are air-cooled and do not use water for cooling, further extending water savings.
Recognition:
Stony Brook Medicine won a 2016 Vizient Sustainability Excellence Award for our Deck Rehabilitation Project on the Health Sciences Center Tower rooftop. The buildings were experiencing temperature control issues. We installed more efficient insulation, and replaced the rusted beams that were supporting the infrastructure. New high-efficiency insulation was installed and all lighting was replaced with LEDs. Support steel was replaced. New doors were installed to inhibit outside temperatures from entering. The facility roofs are now water-tight, and the area above the ceiling has significantly higher temperatures on cold days and lower temperatures on hot days. Vizient Sustainability Excellence Awards are given by Vizient, the largest member-owned healthcare company in the country, to hospitals that demonstrate commitment to sustainability by implementing a new program that has measurable success.
Team:
*Karen Villanueva-Walsh, *Michael Cullen, *John Pluchino, *Sharon Meinster, Mike Aghabekian, Lindsay Calzone, Peter DelBianco, Denise Fritz, Chris Laurita, Rick Monroe, John Rabkevich, Joe Sassone