Article from the latest Valstar Visie. Read the entire Valstar Vision here.
In the Green Deal Sustainable Care (Green Deal 3.0), care organisations have made agreements to minimise their environmental impact. Making real estate more sustainable is one of the instruments for this. Care group Treant has committed itself to the Green Deal and is investigating, together with Valstar Simonis, where the most promising opportunities lie. With the aim of being climate neutral for the entire Care and Cure real estate portfolio by 2050.
Treant's healthcare real estate consists of three hospital locations (Hoogeveen, Stadskanaal and Emmen) and 17 locations for living and care. In 2021, Treant made a CO2-roadmap and discovered that many proposed measures to achieve the climate goals were not technically feasible one-on-one. Wilfred Vorsteveld, head of Housing & Construction: “We therefore went looking for a party that could guide and advise us with a sense of reality to achieve those goals. Then you need someone who thinks along with you, is technically well-versed and knows a lot about sustainability.” After some research and discussions, the choice fell on Valstar Simonis. “A club that fits our DNA,” Vorsteveld summarizes. In 2023, the organization committed itself to the Green Deal Sustainable Healthcare. “We have set up a number of working groups that deal with various facets of sustainability. Real estate and CO2-reduction is one of them. The measures should enable us to reduce CO55 by 2% compared to 2018.”
LCC methodology
Rick Hiddema is an advisor and director of the Valstar Simonis branch in Groningen. He thinks along with Treant about the technical, financial and construction aspects of the sustainability challenge. “For this, we look at the LCC, the life cycle costs. With this methodology, we can calculate different scenarios and provide good advice on how an organization like Treant can achieve the climate objectives. We compare the different options and show at what moment you can best invest in what.” Valstar Simonis has now delivered the first reports. It is now up to client Treant to decide which follow-up steps will actually be taken.
Understandable language
Exploring those different routes to CO2-reduction is quite a task. Valstar Simonis inventoried the current state of the technical installations, held interviews with Treant technicians and conducted research into alternative energy sources in the region. “This results in a clear overview with various possibilities that can also be understood by a layman,” Hiddema describes.
Always custom-made
The plans for CO2-reduction will be a mix of low-hanging fruit and more drastic measures, such as electrification and heat-cold storage. “In addition, there are opportunities in structural adjustments, such as insulation of roofs and floors,” Hiddema knows. “But every building is unique for an LCC calculation and our advice is always customized.”
Vorsteveld states that it is important to him that he can integrate the sustainability ambition into the housing plan. “That means that we stay as close as possible to the natural investment moments. To that end, we have looked closely at our maintenance plan and spoken a lot with our technicians. They know when installations and equipment need replacing and we try to respond to that as best as possible. An additional challenge is that our locations must continue to operate and we must guarantee care for patients.”
Complex puzzle
The puzzle that Treant and Valstar Simonis are putting together is a complicated one. Vorsteveld is all too aware that the climate ambition his organization has committed itself to is a substantial one. “We realize that this comes at a price, but we are very critical of it. We too can only spend a euro once. And there are more challenges: think of the planning – 2030 is closer than you think – and the current grid congestion. We have to remain realistic and focus on what is possible.”
Partnership
Vorsteveld is pleased with the collaboration with Valstar Simonis. “We always try to build a partnership with all our suppliers and we have succeeded in doing so with Valstar Simonis. Trust, transparency and a critical eye are important factors for me and fortunately we find each other in that. It is also nice that Valstar Simonis has experience in the healthcare sector: they understand that it goes on 24/7 here, that it is about people and that our bar is high.”
Read the whole Valstar Vision here.
