Jewish General Hospital: 15 Years of Energy Efficiency Excellence

A holistic view of energy efficiency

“In the beginning, energy efficiency was money-saving hedge at a time when energy costs were high and health and social services budgets were being cut,” said Michael Boudana, Assistant Director of Technical Services at Centre-Ouest-de-l’Île-de-Montréal CIUSSS, of which the Jewish General Hospital (JGH) is part.

“We had a technical team on it, whose members had a broad understanding of what we could achieve with energy efficiency projects. Although we lost some members, that culture has stayed with us and been handed down through time.”

A firmly rooted culture

Today, energy efficiency is an integral part of JGH’s organizational culture, lined up with its involvement in the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES), an organization dedicated to improving the healing environment.¹ The culture is reinforced by generous financial assistance programs that according to Boudana “have helped us stay the course on energy efficiency projects.” For him, each grant is an incredible opportunity to renew and upgrade existing infrastructure by bringing in high-efficiency systems and equipment.

Boldness and innovation as connecting threads

Since 2009, JGH has undertaken no fewer than 14 energy efficiency projects in collaboration with leading Quebec engineering companies such as Ecosystem, Energère, Bouthillette-Parizeau and many others, with financial support from public and private authorities including Énergir.

Other notable projects include a magnetic bearing chiller using modular compressors to generate heat.

“We were one of the first to get this system from a Canadian company looking to break into the market,” says Boudana. “There’s an element of risk in something like that, but we’ve never hesitated to do something bold and new for energy efficiency,” he adds.

Between 2011 and 2014, JGH was a pioneer, drilling open-loop geothermal wells to extract heat from an underground stream to heat the buildings. The project, which also involved converting the steam heating system to hot water, was a chance to optimize JGH’s steam system and save the hospital $370,000 a year.²

Remarkable results

CIUSSS has also been investing in energy efficiency more recently, some of which has gone to JGH. There are now new, efficient boilers and new automation, heat-pump and unit-heater systems as well as rotary heat exchangers. All in all, JGH’s energy efficiency initiatives have reduced natural gas consumption by about 25% over the past five years, saving $1 million annually and providing a more comfortable environment for patients thanks to better temperature control in rooms.

JGH and Énergir: A solid, long-term relationship

In total, JGH has received close to $3.2 million in financial assistance³ from Énergir through the different components of its energy efficiency grants program in the past 15 years. Michael Boudana also hailed improvements in the available financial assistance, which has not only increased, but also diversified as time goes by.

“Énergir is truly a partner for our organization,” he said. “We have a relationship of trust, not just financially but on the human level.”