Whitfield Clinic in Waterford City has become the first hospital in Ireland and the UK to achieve the new ISO50001 energy management accreditation. By working in partnership with the global resource management company, Veolia, since 2006, the clinic has already made significant reductions to carbon emissions. Now with the ISO50001 status, Whitfield is set to annually save a further 220 tonnes of CO2 – equivalent to taking around 160 cars off the road each year.
The 13,000m2 hospital will now gain further energy and cost benefits from the accreditation through the structured energy management which will help reduce its impact on the environment. With energy management top of their sustainability agenda Veolia has worked with the 80-bed hospital over the last 10 years delivering a wide range of energy and facilities services including introducing combined heat and power technology to supply secure, low carbon heat and electricity. Veolia also designed and installed a high efficiency chilled water system which resulted in a 33% energy saving from air conditioning. This combination of measures helps support patient care activities and delivers carefully controlled building conditions essential for medical care.
Verified after an independent two-stage audit of the energy management systems and future targets, the ISO50001 recognition will now enable the on-site Veolia team to deliver more cost and emission savings by identifying new energy saving initiatives, This will lead to an enhanced energy performance and access to grant funding, with these improvements being independently audited on an annual basis.
Commenting on the achievement Niall Gleeson, Managing Director at Veolia Ireland said, “The ISO50001 accreditation really demonstrates how the Whitfield Clinic has progressed and highlights the advances that have been made so far. We look forward to working with Whitfield to further develop the energy management programme and deliver sustainable energy and cost benefits that support the healthcare activities.”
David Beirne, CEO from Whitfield Clinic added, “Achieving ISO50001 marks a real step forward in our sustainability on site, and will help promote greater energy awareness across our staff, shareholders and patients. This in turn will heighten our image and allow us to redirect cost savings to improve patient care.”
Delivering energy management to hospitals since 1938, Veolia currently provides energy management to over 100 hospitals in the UK and Ireland which support the energy requirements for around 7.9million patients each year. This increases sustainability of the healthcare sector by annually saving 119,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
