Initially designed to LEED Silver standards, JE Dunn, Hoefer Wysocki, BranchPattern, Bob D. Campbell & Co., Land3 Studio, and BHC Rhodes brainstormed early and often throughout all phases of design and construction to incorporate additional sustainable elements.

“We realized early on that we could potentially exceed a LEED Silver rating,” said Ashely Eusey, P.E., LEED AP, GGP, Hoefer Wysocki’s lead sustainability design manager. “Rather than working only with JE Dunn in the early phases of the design, we pulled in all of our consultants and began brainstorming ways to make this facility more sustainable. It was truly a team effort throughout the entire project, and vetting sustainability during design and early in the construction phase allowed greater flexibility.”

The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) developed the LEED Scorecard to provide a framework to design and construct healthy, highly efficient buildings that also provide long-term cost savings. The LEED Scorecard is the most widely used green building rating system in the world – a building’s LEED certification is a globally recognized symbol of sustainable achievement.

The Lackland Reid Medical Clinic Replacement scored 60 out of a possible 110 points on the USGBC’s Scorecard, resulting in the LEED Gold certification.

Points were earned in seven categories:

Sustainable Sites: 9 out of 18

•           Earned a perfect score (three out of three points) for alternative transportation-public transportation access; and

•           100% of the building’s roof surface is solar reflective, reducing the heat island effect.

Water Efficiency: 4 out of 9

•           Water use reduction was a key focus; and

•           Potable water consumption was reduced by 36.99%.

Energy & Atmosphere: 29 out of 39

•           Design yielded energy cost savings of 33.8%; and

•           Whole Building Energy Simulation achieved energy cost savings of 34.5%.

Materials & Resources: 11 of 16

•           Perfect score for sustainably sourced materials and products, construction waste management, Persistent Bioaccumulative and Toxic (PBT) chemicals source reduction-lead cadmium and copper as well as furniture and medical furnishings;

•           Resource use-design for flexibility;

•           93.34% of on-site construction waste was diverted from landfill; and

•           45.44% of building materials were sustainably sourced.

Indoor Environmental Quality: 9 out of 26

•           Full points for outdoor air delivery monitoring, construction IAQ management plan during construction: pre-occupancy, low-emitting materials, lighting systems controls, and thermal comfort design and verification.

Project Innovation: 6 out of 6 for project planning and design

Regional Priority Credits: 1 out of 4

The new facility is one of 31 LEED Building Design + Construction (BD+C) Healthcare Gold certified projects in the world and only one of 21 in the U.S.

“In health care spaces, it is particularly important to consider the patients and how a building makes them feel,” Eusey said. “If our facility can have an impact on occupant health, it means patients spend less time there; accordingly, staff are able to discharge patients faster which ultimately leads to serving more patients each year. We hope that this new clinic does just that. The team took great care in how the facility was designed and built while also considering future operations.”