Globally the building sector accounts for more electricity use than any other sector, 42 per cent. 1 Healthcare Infrastructure requires continuous functioning without interruption, which leads to ranking them to be the second most to use a large amount of energy in the building sector.
A study on emission of CO2 from different types of buildings in England was recently conducted. The study has shown that 8 buildings out of the top 10 most polluting buildings are healthcare facilities.2 A study undertaken by Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC)3, India demonstrates that Indian healthcare facilities have a potential to conserve 42% of the energy consumption by implementation of energy efficient measures.
The health sector has a critical role to play in taking measures to improve the energy consumption benchmarks. At the onset, this can be done by looking at the active energy needs of the health centres in the forms of appliances and technologies used in health centres for provision of various services. But more importantly, it has been found that significant improvements can be made in the lighting and cooling needs of the health centre if the building is designed appropriately.
Thus, SELCO Foundation follows an integrated approach which sets benchmarks for both passive and active lighting and cooling through interventions in: