Development of an Approach to Assess the Life Cycle Environmental Impacts and Costs of General Hospitals through the Analysis of a Belgian Case

With the aim of moving towards a more sustainable society, hospital buildings are challenged to decrease their environmental impact while continuing to offer affordable and qualitative medical care. The aim of this paper was to gain insight into the main drivers of the environmental impacts and costs of healthcare facilities, and to identify methodological obstacles for a quantitative assessment. More specifically, the objective was to assess the environmental and financial impacts of the general hospital Sint Maarten in Mechelen (Belgium) by using a life cycle approach. The hospital building... Mehr ...

Verfasser: Milena Stevanovic
Karen Allacker
Stéphane Vermeulen
Dokumenttyp: Artikel
Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
Reihe/Periodikum: Sustainability, Vol 11, Iss 3, p 856 (2019)
Verlag/Hrsg.: MDPI AG
Schlagwörter: healthcare building / life cycle assessment / life cycle cost / quantitative approach / sustainability / Environmental effects of industries and plants / TD194-195 / Renewable energy sources / TJ807-830 / Environmental sciences / GE1-350
Sprache: Englisch
Permalink: https://search.fid-benelux.de/Record/base-26923721
Datenquelle: BASE; Originalkatalog
Powered By: BASE
Link(s) : https://doi.org/10.3390/su11030856

With the aim of moving towards a more sustainable society, hospital buildings are challenged to decrease their environmental impact while continuing to offer affordable and qualitative medical care. The aim of this paper was to gain insight into the main drivers of the environmental impacts and costs of healthcare facilities, and to identify methodological obstacles for a quantitative assessment. More specifically, the objective was to assess the environmental and financial impacts of the general hospital Sint Maarten in Mechelen (Belgium) by using a life cycle approach. The hospital building was analyzed based on a combination of a simplified life cycle assessment and life cycle costing. The “MMG+_KULeuven„ assessment tool was used for the calculation of environmental impacts and financial costs. The study revealed that the environmental impact was mainly caused by electricity use for appliances and lighting, cleaning processes, material production, and spatial heating, while building construction and electricity use caused the highest financial costs. The most relevant impact categories identified were global warming, eutrophication, acidification, human toxicity (cancer and non-cancer effects), and particulate matter. Various methodological challenges were identified, such as the adaptation of existing methods to ensure applicability to hospital buildings and the extraction of data from a Revit model.