When creating Emerald Place, Elysium worked together with children and young people with lived experience on designing many different aspects of its construction.
The young people specifically wanted to make sure the building did not negatively impact on the environment and stressed the need for Emerald Place to be sustainable. The request aligned exactly with Elysium’s pledge to achieve Net Zero by 2040 and the building was designed to be the organisation’s first all-electric hospital.
Leah Moss, Commercial Projects Director at Elysium, said: “We have been delighted to have had the opportunity to work collaboratively with Surrey and Borders NHS Partnership and a group of young people with lived experience to design and deliver Emerald Place Clinic, an exemplar all electric hospital.
“It was important to us all to achieve a Child and Adolescent Inpatient Unit that did not impact negatively on the environment. A young people’s workshop during the design phase established how passionate the young people were to include sustainable energy sources and develop environments that could reduce the carbon footprint.
“To achieve this, we designed and delivered a fully electric site, that has been orientated to optimise the management of the environment. In addition to this, we have created a fully fenced nature reserve area that allows this natural environment to contribute to supporting local ecology and provides the opportunity for therapeutic engagement with the young people.”
Some of the key design elements are:
- Electric vehicle charging for 10% of the parking spaces and ducting that will enable easy implementation as the use of electric vehicles becomes the norm.
- Solar panels contributing to offset energy being used.
- LED lighting throughout.
- Water efficient devices such as water–efficient taps and showers save both water and energy by minimising the use of heated water.
- External soft landscaping shall be irrigated through natural precipitation and manual watering only.
Elysium is committed to collecting and monitoring of energy and water consumption data for a minimum of 12 months enabling opportunities to adjust systems and user behaviours accordingly to achieve the best outcome for the environment.
Andy Wadley, Director of NHS Contracts and Integrated Systems and Sustainability Lead at Elysium said: “The hospital includes a wide range of environmentally-friendly and sustainable features including air source heat pumps, rainwater harvesting and solar panels.
“In total we estimate that the 26 solar panels will equate to an annual carbon saving of 5000kg which is significant. It is a true all electric building and uses no gas no oil and 100% of our electricity across Elysium comes from renewable sources.
“It is our first fully electric hospital and we already have six smaller services which are all electric as well within our estate. Wherever we can, we are amending services to move towards being all electric.
“The young people involved in helping us develop this hospital were clear that they were interested in green technology and that the service would support the environment. The hospital also treats young people closer to their home, which is better for them and also improves the impact on the environment.
“As an organisation, we are absolutely committed to evolving how we design services to improve the environmental impact and take significant strides towards our Net Zero targets.”
Elysium Healthcare worked in partnership with NHS England and Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust to provide Emerald Place Clinic, the first NHS funded mental health inpatient service for young people in Surrey for more than a decade. https://v18jrwq856m.c.updraftclone.com/location/emerald-place-clinic/