Baptist Health System's newest hospital,
Mission Trail Baptist Hospital, has achieved LEED® gold certification from the
U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC). The LEED building certification program is a nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction, and operation of green buildings. Mission Trail Baptist is the first hospital in Texas to achieve LEED gold certification and one of eight hospitals in the United States to receive such honor. There are only 28 LEED gold hospitals in the world.
“Building a hospital that helps conserve resources and provides a healthy environment for our patients, their families and our employees was at the heart of our efforts to achieve LEED certification,” said Andy Harris, President of Mission Trail Baptist Hospital. “We are so pleased to be a leader in this type of innovation in health care. It’s one more way we are living our mission of helping people achieve health for life through compassionate service, inspired by faith.”
Mission Trail Baptist Hospital was designed by Earl Swensson to achieve LEED certification for energy use, lighting, water and material use as well as incorporating a variety of other sustainable strategies. LEED verifies environmental performance, occupant health and financial return. It was established for market leaders to design and construct buildings that protect and save precious resources while also making good economic sense.
“With each new LEED-certified building, we get one step closer to USGBC’s vision of a sustainable built environment within a generation” said Rick Fedrizzi, President, CEO & Founding Chair, U.S. Green Building Council. “As the newest member of the LEED family of green buildings, Mission Trail Baptist Hospital is an important addition to the growing strength of the green building movement.”
Some of the green aspects of Mission Trail Baptist Hospital include, but are not limited to:
- Six electric car plug ins
- Use of regional and recycled building materials
- Highly efficient lighting & water systems
- Energy efficient design and construction
- Low Volatile Organic Compounds usage
- CO2 air quality monitoring
- Wind power offset purchasing
The project team specified and procured building materials which were harvested and manufactured within 500 miles of San Antonio. In all, 34% of the construction materials were local/regional to the San Antonio region. Additionally, 21% of building materials had high recycled content.
Based on a water efficient irrigation system which utilizes gray water, as well as high-efficiency indoor plumbing fixtures like high efficiency toilets, urinals and lavatories, the hospital is designed to save up to 1,116,000 gallons of water per year. Additionally, condensate is captured from the air handling units and used for cooling tower makeup water.
The project is designed to be 15% more energy efficient than a standard, or code-compliant, facility; saving up to $148,000 in energy costs per year.
A 10 kW solar array is installed at the hospital to reduce the electrical demand on the power grid, save electrical costs, and promote the use of renewable energy.
Mission Trail Baptist Hospital has purchased 10,696,000 kWh of Renewable Energy Credits for the first two years of operation, in order to promote the generation of renewable energy by utility providers.
'LEED' and related logo is a trademark owned by the U.S. Green Building Council and is used with permission.