Energy Efficient Buildings are Healthy Buildings

Metrus does many things for our customers, chief among them is helping make their buildings more energy efficient and resilient. It’s work that we find gratifying on many levels. Not only do the efficiency upgrades save money and reduce CO2 emissions, they also greatly improve the health of the indoor work environment.

Creating and maintaining healthy buildings is critically important. Just how important? The EPA claims that the average American spends up to 87 percent of their time indoors, inside buildings.

According to ACEEE & Physicians for Social Responsibility, reducing annual electricity use by 15% nationwide would save more than six lives every day, prevent nearly 30,000 asthma episodes each year, and save Americans up to $20 billion through avoided health harms annually.

The impact buildings have on the environment, however, is not widely understood by the general public. GRESB recently conducted word-association research - using terms people might relate to when thinking about a healthier world. At the bottom of the list was “green buildings.” Only 11% of the survey takers associated that phrase with strongly relating to the environment.

We wanted to hear firsthand from some of our customers about the impact their efficiency upgrades have had on their people and their workplaces.

“Metrus’ ESA has helped the hospital achieve significant economic and environmental value,” said Gregg Oishi, CFO of Kuakini Medical Center. “The higher efficiency cooling systems have increased our patients comfort-level, and we’ve heard from both patients and staff alike on the improved lighting throughout the hospital.”

Ron Fujihara, Manager, Maintenance for Kuakini noted that “this project helped us exceed requirements set forth by the Joint Commission (on healthcare) for humidity and temperature levels in sterile and clean areas and operating rooms. This gets to the core of our mission of taking care of our patients by giving them the healthiest environment as possible.”

Metrus began working with Wells College is 2018. Marian Brown, Director, Center for Sustainability and the Environment at Wells told us: “As the project (construction) work winds down, we have received early feedback that our library staff is VERY pleased with the improved quality of the lighting in their spaces, especially the Learning Commons.”

Another customer had this to say: “The project has gone a long way to increasing the comfort of patients and workers. Maintenance calls to adjust temperature or lighting levels has gone down by well over 50%.” Bristol Hospital, Director of Facilities, Tom Roche

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.