Harnessing data through digital building tech

In the UK, the NHS produces 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, and the healthcare sector’s sizeable carbon footprint is not a problem specific to the UK. In the USA, for example, the healthcare sector is responsible for 8.5% of the country’s total carbon emissions. Concerningly, the sector’s carbon emissions increased by 6% between 2010 and 2018 across America, despite the drive for a green transition. Globally, in 2018 the healthcare sector’s climate footprint was sufficiently large that if healthcare was a country, its climate footprint would have been the fifth largest in the world, bigger than both Japan’s and Brazil’s. Clearly, action needs to be taken by the healthcare sector on carbon emissions.

In response, the NHS has set two clear targets to reach Net Zero. For emissions it controls directly (the NHS Carbon Footprint), it aims to reach Net Zero by 2040, with an ambition to have achieved an 80% reduction in emissions by 2032 at the latest. For emissions it can influence (the NHS Carbon Footprint Plus) meanwhile, it aims to reach Net Zero by 2045, with a target of having reduced emissions by 80% between 2036 and 2039.

Decarbonising not a simple process

Action will need to be taken urgently if the NHS is to meet these pledges and become the world’s first Net Zero healthcare service by 2040. However, decarbonising the healthcare system will not be a simple process. One of the biggest challenges facing the UK’s health service is that, in the drive to decarbonise, the majority of the more straightforward steps, such as replacing diesel and petrol-powered vehicles with an EV fleet, have already been taken. As a result, the encouraging progress the NHS had been making has begun to stall.

However, there is an area where significant progress can still be made. In the UK, NHS property and its supporting facilities services, including primary care, Trust and Private Finance Initiative estate, accounts for 15% of the NHS’s total carbon emissions profile. This should not come as a surprise; healthcare buildings are typically energy-intensive, and that is particularly true of hospitals, which not only require a huge amount of energy, but must also be kept running all the time. The result is that hospitals use 2.5 times more energy than commercial buildings of an equivalent size.

Establishing a new pathway

Improving energy efficiency in hospitals and other healthcare buildings would help to significantly reduce the operational carbon emissions of the healthcare estate. Historically, this could of course be achieved through demolition and building back better, but this is no longer an option given both the carbon and fiscal costs. Therefore, a new pathway must be established to decarbonise the existing building stock.

No two hospitals are exactly alike, and across the entirety of the UK healthcare sector’s property portfolio there is a huge range of buildings, including highly sophisticated laboratories, large city hospitals, and rural GP practices. The range of different buildings will therefore require a host of stakeholders, including NHS Trust leaders, property managers, structural engineers, and many others, to adopt a holistic approach to decarbonising existing building stock. The restrictions imposed by limits to the UK’s electrical grid will also mean that relying solely on electrification is not a realistic option. However, embracing new technologies such as digital building tools can make this challenging undertaking possible, and provide the healthcare sector with the most effective and cost-efficient route to decarbonising existing buildings.

A grid at capacity

To achieve Net Zero carbon targets, it will be important to convert processes that currently run on fossil fuels, such as natural gas, to electrified systems. Simply put, there are no renewable sources of fossil fuels, whereas electricity can be, and increasingly is, generated renewably. In fact, the International Energy Agency predicts that under existing policies and market conditions, global renewable capacity is forecast to reach 7,300 GW by 2028. This growth trajectory would see global capacity increase to 2.5 times its current level by 2030.

As a result, it is understandable why the electrification of healthcare buildings might seem like the fastest route to decarbonising healthcare estates. After all, it follows that if electricity generation no longer relies on fossil fuels, then electrifying processes in existing building stock will decarbonise those buildings step-by-step, as more and more electricity is generated by renewable power sources, replacing the use of fossil fuels at both the source and the point of use.

Problems with the theory

Unfortunately, there are problems with this theory. In the UK, the grid is operating at close to capacity, and complete electrification of existing building stock could require a 400% increase in the grid’s capacity. Furthermore, although renewable generation capacity is increasing rapidly, these renewable power sources also need to be connected to the grid, and that is not happening nearly as quickly. The process of connecting new power sources to the grid is complex, demanding specialist expertise and significant investment, in addition to what ultimately amounts to a fundamental change in strategy from those responsible for running the grid.

The result of this is that in the UK, and indeed elsewhere across the globe, major new renewable power sources such as a wind farm off the coast of Scotland, which will produce more electricity annually than both of Britain’s largest coal-fired power stations combined, is not yet providing any electricity to the wider electrical grid. This wind farm is far from a unique case, and it currently takes an average of four years for a new supplier to be connected to the grid.

There are bureaucratic steps that could be taken to reduce this wait time, with current regulations requiring work that could be done simultaneously to be carried out sequentially. However, even so, the technical challenges and financial costs will remain a significant obstacle to increasing the capacity of the grid through the introduction of new renewable power sources. That is an obstacle that though not ultimately insurmountable, stands to prevent Net Zero targets being achieved on schedule solely through electrification.

How parametric data tools can provide the answer

If electrification alone cannot provide a route to decarbonisation, another way must be found and, because the challenge for healthcare estate managers is to find the best way to decarbonise a wide range of buildings, the solution must reflect this. In short, the healthcare sector must adopt a multi-faceted approach. For example, the comparatively straightforward process of installing more energy-efficient lighting and heating systems could make a real difference in hospital waiting rooms and GPs’ surgeries by reducing energy usage. Specialist wards for the immunocompromised, operating theatres, and laboratories, however, are likely to require more sophisticated methods. As a result, data will need to be at the heart of any approach to decarbonising existing building stock on healthcare sector estates.

Fortunately, through the use of innovative digital building tools, data can be put to use for this very purpose. Parametric and comparative modelling, cloud technology, bespoke analysis, and data visualisation, can all be used in concert to generate thousands of varying scenarios for improving energy efficiency, in both individual buildings and across entire campuses. This will allow property managers to identify the most efficient strategies to decarbonise entire healthcare estates in the light of the resources available to them and their specific goals.

These same tools can also be used to provide an ongoing analysis of the best route forward. This may prove to be of crucial importance. New and varied regulations are likely to be introduced, while the technologies available will also continue to improve. Accordingly, analysis cannot remain static if property managers are to be able to pivot to meet emerging challenges and take advantage of new opportunities.

Challenge and opportunity

The healthcare sector is not in a position to ignore this problem. Changes are approaching that will demand a response — the reputational and economic costs may otherwise be unaffordable. The Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards (MEES) have already introduced legal restrictions on the use of energy-inefficient buildings. With 2030 and 2050 looming increasingly large on the horizon, a growing number of more stringent regulatory requirements should be anticipated. Reputational costs also need to be considered. Stakeholders, who — most importantly for the healthcare sector — include employees, are increasingly expecting institutions and businesses across all sectors to take action on the climate.

That said, decarbonising existing building stock across healthcare estates is not just a challenge for the sector; it is also an opportunity. By embracing digital building tools and data, the healthcare sector has the chance to take meaningful steps to decarbonise existing building stock across healthcare estates and achieve Net Zero targets, while also reducing its expenditure on energy. The NHS has a limited budget, and currently a not insignificant percentage of that is being spent paying energy bills — particularly because the NHS has needed to set money aside to hedge against ongoing market volatility.

By improving the energy efficiency of its buildings, however, the NHS can reduce its expenditure on energy, making the initial expenditure on decarbonising existing buildings a worthwhile investment. After all, less money being spent on energy bills should translate to more money being spent on treating patients, without a need to increase the health service’s budget.