SAN ANTONIO, Texas — Mission Trail Baptist Hospital in San Antonio, Texas is the first acute-care hospital in the state of Texas to achieve LEED® Gold and the first hospital in the city of San Antonio to achieve LEED certification, established by the U.S. Green Building Council.
“Though LEED certification is becoming more common, it is still making its way into the healthcare design sector due to the unique requirements of hospitals,” said Eric Sheffer with SSRCx, the LEED consultant on the project. “Mission Trail not only met those requirements but was certified under the LEED v2009 standards, which are more stringent in several areas than previous LEED versions.”
Mission Trail is located at Brooks City-Base, San Antonio’s premier center for bioscience, academic, environmental and technical research. Brooks City-Base is the nation’s first-and-only city-base, the result of a unique partnership between the United States Air Force and the City of San Antonio, which allows for the redevelopment of the former Brooks Air Force Base property.
The site was issued a Ready for Reuse permit by the EPA due to the remediation efforts that were undertaken prior to development. Based on the selection of a previously developed site, provisions for alternative transportation, community connectivity and stormwater design, the project achieved 21 of 26 possible points for sustainable sites. It provides access to city bus lines and sidewalk access to retail goods and services and residential areas.
Mission Trail was a collaborative process among Vanguard Health System, Baptist Health System, architecture firm Earl Swenson Associates, general contractors Brasfield and Gorrie, and commissioning firm SSRCx, which provided LEED and measurement and verification consultation and energy modeling.
The project team utilized “triple bottom line” principles in making decisions for the facility, which factors in the economics, environmental, and social impacts of a building. These principles help to safeguard the patients and staff at the facility, surrounding community, and the financial well-being of Mission Trail.
The facility has the potential to save up to $150,000 in energy costs, and 1.1 million gallons of potable water per year. Some of the sustainable features include:
Building materials were harvested and manufactured within 500 miles of the build site. In all, 34 percent of the construction materials were local/regional to San Antonio. Additionally, 21 percent of building materials had high recycled content.
Water-efficient features including an irrigation system that utilizes graywater and high-efficiency indoor plumbing fixtures.
A 10 kW solar array is installed on the project to reduce the electrical demand on the power grid, save electrical costs, and promote the use of renewable energy.
Mission Trail Baptist Hospital has purchased 10,696,000 kWh of Renewable Energy Credits for the first two years of operation, in order to promote the generation of renewable energy by utility providers.
