Acute Care Hospital in Florida Awarded LEED Certification

LUTZ, Fla. — St. Joseph’s Hospital-North recently achieved LEED certification for its $225 million facility..

The three-story, 350,000-square-foot hospital and adjacent 50,000-square-foot physician office building features private patient suites, labor recovery suites and a 30-bed full-service Emergency Department.

The hospital landscape is planted with native and adapted species, such as cabbage palm, live oak and saw palmetto to conserve water and decreases the need for fertilizer and pesticide. Forty-five percent of the of the site is preserved as open space to provide habitat for wildlife and natural views for patients.

 

A white roof covers more than 75 percent of the building, helping to reduce the heat -sland effect, thus keeping indoor air temperatures cooler, according to the hospital.

 

Reclaimed water is used for irrigation, so no potable water is necessary to maintain the landscape, and the building uses 20 percent less water than a standard building through the use of low-flow water fixtures, including toilets, urinals and lavatories.

 

With refrigerants selected that minimize the impact on ozone depletion and global warming and no CFC-based refrigerants used, the hospital uses 12 percent less energy than a standard building.

 

In addition to diverting construction waste from the landfill, more than 20 percent of the materials used to construct the building were made of recycled content and 10 percent to 20 percent of the materials used to construct the building were extracted and manufactured within 500 miles of the building site to support the local economy and reduce impacts from transportation.