Naval Hospital Bremerton became the first military treatment facility to receive the Energy Efficiency Commitment (E2C) award from American Society of Healthcare Engineers (ASHE), in recognition of achieving a 15 percent reduction in energy usage. NHB’s Facilities Management Department actively took the lead in establishing command-wide energy reduction measures which lead to this award.

“We have been tracking and attempting to decrease energy consumption for many years,” said Russell Kent, NHB facilities manager. “This award is very gratifying since it provides independent recognition of various efforts, which often are unrecognized.  In addition Facilities Department members, this award also recognizes the efforts of the entire NHB staff, since common-sense initiatives such as turning off lights and unused equipment, or reporting wasteful conditions are an important element of our success.”

The E2C award program was developed by ASHE, member group of American Hospital Association, in conjunction with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ENERGY STAR Program. The program is intended to generate public awareness of the environmental and financial benefits that could be gained at health care facilities such as NHB by reducing energy intensity by at least 10 percent.

“Energy intensity is measured in units of energy consumed per square foot of facility space, as opposed to gross energy consumption,” said Kent, explaining just what the concept of reduced energy intensity (by 15 percent) means to the command. “Measuring usage this way normalizes for building construction, expansion, or demolition.  If the facility area remains constant, then a 15 percent reduction in energy intensity is equivalent to a 15 percent reduction in gross consumption.”

According to Kent, the energy reduction represents a cost savings to the command.  “Since our annual energy bill is approximately $1.5 million per year, a 15 percent savings equates to an annual savings of $225,000.  And this is a recurring savings, not just a one-time savings,” he said.

The Energy Reduction initiatives not only bring a reduction in associated costs, but these efforts also have made NHB more environmentally sound and resulted in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

“As a result of our energy savings, overall green house gas emissions (GHG) are calculated to have decreased by 1,560 metric tons per year,” said Kent.

Some of the energy conservation measure projects that have been undertaken over the past several years included HVAC chiller replacement; conversion of pneumatic to digital controls elevator renovations; replacement of boilers in several buildings with heat pumps, replacement of domestic water heat exchangers and replacement of medical air and vacuum compressors.

There have also been lighting retrofits, including motion sensors and on-going command-wide energy awareness campaigns on turning off lights, and maintaining air-conditioning boundaries.

“With most of the energy conservation measure projects, the savings resulted from the incorporation of more energy efficient parts and systems when we performed scheduled system renovations,” explained Kent.

NHB is the first military hospital from any service branch to receive the E2C award in the program’s history. There have been 29 awardees nationwide since 2006. “We are certainly not the only military treatment facility that is focused on energy savings, nor are we the only MTF that has been successful in this regard,” said Kent, “But it is wonderful to be recognized for our efforts.”

Formal recognition of 2011 awardees will take place at the ASHE annual convention this summer in Seattle.