The healthcare sector faces several challenges in terms of housing. The demand for new assisted living facilities and care centers is increasing. In addition, the government is placing a strong emphasis on the implementation of sustainability and the reduction of energy consumption. How do care institutions manage to deal with this? Read the story of care organization SVRZ.
Sector
Elderly Care
Scope
Zeeland: 57 sites spread across 23 centers
Scenarios
- Multi-year maintenance
- Sustainability
- Energy transition
Location
Middelburg, The Netherlands
SVRZ provides care to vulnerable elderly people throughout Zeeland in the Netherlands, who need short or long-term care and support as a result of their physical conditions or memory problems. With about 3,600 employees and 1,500 volunteers, SVRZ aims to “ensure a bright future” for them in the years ahead. That is a major challenge because of Zeeland’s island structure and aging population.
With more than 57 care facilities spread over 23 centers in Zeeland, SVRZ faces a major challenge in maintaining its assets. The Housing & Maintenance Department of SVRZ Service Center is in charge of this task. Since 2012 O-Prognose software has been serving SVRZ well in drawing up its multi-year building maintenance planning.
A successful approach to building maintenance and sustainable development of care centers
Gertjan van Driessche, Maintenance Coordinator at the Housing & Maintenance department, manages the multi-year maintenance plan data in O-Prognose. “At SVRZ we have a relatively young property portfolio with construction dates mostly starting from 2005 and beyond,” he explains. “A few years ago, we launched a new approach at SVRZ to manage the maintenance of our property and to increase its sustainability.”
“In addition to the annual planning in O-Prognose, we also visit each location annually to assess the condition on site. This is based on the multi-year maintenance plan prepared in O-Prognose by myself and the maintenance & technical staff involved, so not according to NEN 2767, the Dutch standard for condition assessment of buildings. In addition, we also take into account the requirements of each specific location. Finally, there is a crosscheck with the sustainability planning of the location in question,” Gertjan van Driessche explains.
SVRZ Roadmap Approach:
This approach results in a tailored maintenance plan for each location, a method that SVRZ has been implementing successfully for many years to maintain its properties.
Making the transition of the site “Koriander” toward a more sustainable, all-electric concept
What are SVRZ’s ambitions in terms of housing and sustainability?
The Housing & Maintenance Department has the duty to keep everything clean and up to standard, according to the organization’s objectives of providing a pleasant living environment for its clients. In 2020, the Energy Transition Master Plan was adopted with the subtitle: “Full speed ahead to zero gas.” This means that SVRZ has the sustainable objective and ambition of making its care properties completely gas-free by 2030. If they could achieve this ambitious goal, they might already be approaching the national climate goals for 2050 before 2030.
Energy renovation schedules for each site
To this end, the Housing & Maintenance Department has drawn up a schedule of energy renovations for each site in the Energy Transition Master Plan. SVRZ is looking at the natural replacement timing of the gas installations so that a site can be made all-electric or, in the first instance, hybrid. This will be achieved by means of (air-water) heat pumps. For hybrid installations, the useful life of the existing central heating boiler is extended.
Natural replacement timing vs. sustainability
“The replacement moment of the existing technical installations is pre-eminently a suitable investment moment to make sustainability possible,” explains Gertjan van Driessche. “This also applies to rebuilding or renovating a building. In that case, no or very limited capital destruction takes place.” For example, if the flooring is to be replaced, underfloor heating will be installed as well during the renovation, if possible, to increase the efficiency of the heat pumps.
SVRZ has also installed more than 6,500 solar panels. The technical condition of the roofing was examined in advance, based on the multi-year maintenance plan. At several locations, the roofing was replaced prior to the installation of the solar panels, which immediately increased the insulation value considerably, to the level of the current standards for new constructions.
SVRZ also applied the principle of the natural replacement moment in renovations by immediately replacing old fluorescent and PL lighting with LED lighting and replacing existing gas dryers with electric heat pump dryers.
The renovated group residences in Ter Schorre, a part of them is already finished. By 2025, the entire project will be accomplished.
CO2 reduction
With this approach, SVRZ achieved a CO2 reduction of no less than 28% in the period of 2018-2020 and saved over 400,000 m³ of gas per year. In the coming years, the implementation of the Energy Transition Master Plan will be continued based on the sustainable multi-year building maintenance plan.
For us, O-Prognose is an important element in the preventive maintenance process
Gertjan van Driessche
Maintenance Coordinator, Foundation for Regional Care Provision (SVRZ)
