Victoria’s new Royal Jubilee Hospital is being built to LEED Gold standards and is also being called B.C.’s first Pacific Green facility.
Victoria’s new Royal Jubilee Hospital is being built to LEED Gold standards and is also being called B.C.’s first Pacific Green facility.
Construction started in August 2008 for the $349 million, 500-room hospital and is set to finish soon.
Patients will be transferred from the old Royal Jubilee in March.
An impressive eight-storey, 38,000-square metre facility, Royal Jubilee cinched its LEED status by scoring 45 out of 70 on the LEED scorecard, unlike Pacific Green which has no standards or no rating system.
In fact, it appears Pacific Green could be a concept in name only with little documentation to back it up.
“Pacific Green came about in the 2007 Throne speech,” said Rudi van den Broek, Royal Jubilee’s chief project officer with the Vancouver Island Health Authority (VIHA).
A B.C.-only concept, van den Broek said Pacific Green is a “directional idea” that covers design, construction, maintenance, operation and renovation concepts that go beyond LEED standards yet doesn’t have a scorecard of its own.
A Citizens’ Services spokesperson said that the term hasn’t been used much since the Throne Speech in 2007.
The VIHA produced a June 2008 document which vaguely defined the concept: “Pacific Green hospitals are healthier for patients and health care providers, use less energy and water, and enhance environmental quality.
They also enhance the environmental and health outcomes associated with health care facility design and construction on the health of occupants, local communities and global ecology and to create healing environments to benefit patients, staff, and visitors.”
Unlike LEED, where builders can pick and choose where they want to score points, a Pacific Green goal was to embrace a broad range of sustainable features, said van den Broek, who started work on the project in June 2007.
“We wanted a life-cycle approach, a whole of life approach,” he explained.
The facility is being built to last 50 to 75 years.
An example of Pacific Green in action is energy efficiency. Originally aiming to achieve 38 per cent of the Model National Energy Code, Royal Jubilee will reduce energy costs by about 50 percent.
Savings were achieved by the use of high-quality thermals skins and glazing, window shades, quality insulation and hospital’s position in relation to the sun.
More green space for patients, staff and the community at large is another Pacific Green priority.
“We’re not contributing to the concrete jungle,” said Malek Tawashy, project manager with The Lark Group, which is working with Acciona on the P3 project.
Preserving the existing Garry Oak trees was a priority. That preservation resulted in the creation of pockets of greenery within a parking lot.
Pacific Green is also said to surpass LEED standards with regards to flooring.
Parquet flooring continues up the wall a few inches in one continuous installation, making it an easier-to-clean, and thus healthier, surface.
In high-traffic areas, such as main hallways, tile was installed.
Design that minimizes noise pollution and high-efficiency mechanical systems are other Pacific Green items.
Much of the hospital’s other features are covered under LEED standards such as site selection, stormwater management and green roofs, Tawashy noted.
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