Third Going Green in Public Health Facilities Conference

2015

Department of Transport and Public Works

(Western Cape Government)

Going Green Conference

The Department of Transport and Public Works hosted the third annual Going Green in Public Health Facilities Conference (GGC) on 16 and 17 September 2015 in Cape Town.

The conference gave public sector professionals the chance to share knowledge and ideas with professionals from the private sector and to discuss cost effective methods to make public facilities more environmentally friendly and ecologically responsible.

The theme for this year’s conference was "Technical Ground-Breaking of Healthcare Facilities".

Experts referred to the theme in their presentations which included inputs on green design of public healthcare facilities, best practice waste management, waste efficiency, improving energy efficiency and retrofitting existing energy systems, design risk management, air quality, infection control, facility maintenance, air quality, facility maintenance, and medical gas plants.

View the GGC 2015 report for the full list of conference presentations.

Site Visits

Participants visited the following health facilities during the conference:

Mitchells Plain Hospital.
Heideveld Emergency Centre.
72-hour Acute Psychiatric Unit at Mitchells Plain Hospital.
Khayelitsha Hospital.

Building Efficiency Standards

During the conference, professionals started to work on developing the Building Efficiency Standards (BES) document to be launched at next year’s conference (GGC 2016).

BES Document Main Areas

Energy efficiency.
Waste efficiency.
Water efficiency.
Life cycle costing.

GGC 2016

The fourth Going Green in Public Health Facilities Conference will take place in Gauteng in 2016.

Experts will present public schools and public general facilities green measures on the first day of the conference and will focus on health facilities as a specialised component to ensure that the focus is not lost.