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green sustainable timesaving ideas can be discussed before the building is designed, preventing the need for value engineering. One important requirement for the IPD credit is writing a Health Mission Statement to ensure that everyone understands the hospital's sustainability intent. While not a requirement, some LEED consultants also have the design team, general contractor and other key consultants sign a Responsibility Letter to ensure all are held responsible for respective credits and are as committed to the project's success as the owner. > Healthy building materials The USGBC is driving the market with new credits that encourage building material manufacturers to produce environmentally friendly, less harmful products. A new prerequisite, as well as new credits in the Materials and Resources category, address elimination of products with health-related risks. Recently, a movement among architecture firms across the nation has emerged to encourage transparency among manufacturers to disclose product ingredients and provide verified lifecycle information to aid decision-making on building material specifications. Learn more at www.hpdcollaborative.org. While the architectural designer specifies building products, it is just as important that the general contractor verify that what is purchased and installed in the building is free of banned substances. During the submittal process, a key driver to success is to require all subcontractors and suppliers to complete a form disclosing the makeup of products with verifiable manufacturer data. The Dell project team pursued USGBC Pilot Credit 11, Sustainable elements such as LED lighting, high-efficiency glazing, building envelope commissioning and automated lighting and controls that respond to patient room occupancy significantly reduce the bed tower's energy consumption. Left: Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas is the first hospital to achieve LEED-HC Platinum for its recent expansion, the W.H. and Elaine McCarty South Tower. www.mcdmag.com Chemical Avoidance in Building Materials, which eliminates the use of phthalates and Pilot Credit 2 PBT Source Reduction, which eliminates dioxins and halogenated organic compounds in building products. In some instances, performance and cost barriers prevented their use. > Prefabrication Prefabrication can play a major role in reducing sustainable project costs. Extensive use of building information modeling enabled ease of prefabrication for patient room headwalls and restrooms for Dell Children's South Tower. Benefits included significant improvements in project schedule, product quality and the elimination of waste, as well as a reduction in budgeted labor costs for that portion of the project by 54 percent. > Construction waste diversion Keeping building scrap out of landfills is a major component of achieving sustainability goals. The Dell project team developed an aggressive construction waste diversion plan with a goal of diverting 95 percent of waste. To meet the facility's requirement, a single-stream waste hauler was used to take material offsite to sort and weigh. More than 3,000 tons of waste — 96 percent — was diverted from the landfill. > Building envelope commissioning As part of the enhanced commissioning credit, LEED-HC includes envelope commissioning to help owners earn extra points. Envelope commissioning ensures healthy indoor air quality, as well as optimizes infection control and energy performance. To earn these credits, early design details are scrutinized and the envelope is subjected to performance testing using thermal imaging and water testing during construction to identify and alleviate potential problems. The cost of envelope commissioning is expected to have a relatively short payback because it directly lowers ongoing energy and maintenance costs. > Energy credits High-performance strategies — LED lighting, high-efficiency glazing, building envelope commissioning and automated lighting and controls that respond to patient room occupancy — significantly reduce energy consumption in the Dell bed tower. These strategies, along with the help of an onsite natural gas-fired co-generation power plant operated by local power company Austin Energy, and a photovoltaic array, yielded an energy savings of 47.7 percent. By utilizing proven, practical strategies at the earliest stages of the project to incorporate sustainable design, construction and waste management practices, owners can lower operational costs, improve staff retention and take pride in providing a healthier atmosphere for patients and employees, all with less impact to the environment. Norma Rosowski is director of sustainability for The Beck Group. She can be reached at NormaRosowski@beckgroup.com. November/December 2013 | Medical Construction & Design 35