A large hospital as efficient as a smart city? It's possible. So possible that the Gemelli Polyclinic, in Rome, he succeeded: it is the first Italian hospital to have obtained ISO 50001 certification which certifies optimal energy management for what is a real city within a city with 30 'inhabitants' a day, including patients, doctors, nurses and all the staff who operate one of the largest Italian health facilities every day.
THEISO is the International Organization for Standardization, the international non-governmental and independent organization that assigns certificates based on rigorous standards (20.500 different types) on products, services and systems for almost all industrial types from technology to food, from agriculture to healthcare. It is synonymous with safety, quality and innovation. This is why the goal achieved by Gemini is important. Naturally, this result was not achieved in a day but through a process that started a long time ago, that is already several years of gradual and progressive increase in energy management objectives. The press release presenting the assignment of the energy standard states that "the teamwork of the components of the Technical Office of the Gemelli Foundation has been fundamental, involving maintenance, planning, building constructions, clinical energy in synergy with the technical consultancy of EfficiencyKNow and the certification body Bureau Veritas”.
“An important milestone – says the General Director of the Enrico Zampedri Polyclinic – and an acknowledgment of everyone's work and which comes at a historic stage in which awareness of the importance of creating eco-sustainable systems through energy efficiency measures is also growing in defense of the environment and the planet. This acknowledgment - continues Zampedri - is even more significant and current because it comes just a few days after the conclusion of the World Climate Conference in Paris (Cop 21) and manifests Gemelli's commitment to offer its own contribution, giving substance and translating the teachings of the papal magisterium into good practices with Pope Francis' encyclical 'Laudato Sì', delivered to the reflection not only of all Catholics, but of all the inhabitants of the planet Earth”.
“The ISO 50001 certification – adds theEnergy Manager and Head of Energy Services at Gemelli, Carlo Pesaro – arrives at the culmination of years and years of work aimed at making the energy management of the Polyclinic as efficient as possible, offering the best comfort to patients and all those who gravitate to the structure without waste and reducing environmental pollution as much as possible”.
Gemini can be compared to a city of 30 inhabitants, with consumption of around 50 million kWh each year and around 16 million m3 of natural gas. It is equipped with a sophisticated cogeneration plant, which supplies the structure with 60% of the internal energy needs (electricity and thermal energy) and which allows, in summer, to transform heat into cold, i.e. to air-condition the rooms without consuming other electricity , but only using heat as a source
energy”. The hospital also has a remote management/monitoring system which is based on the control of more than 50.000 device points via a fiber optic network (for example, to guarantee heating-cooling room by room). Furthermore, “the activities and renovation works are planned and started at the Polyclinic”, he explains Claudio Di Mario, Founding Partner of EfficiencyKNow, following the guideline of energy efficiency, from the intelligent use of control and monitoring technologies, to the choice of the most suitable construction materials (from simple double-glazed windows to materials that do not disperse heat). The result is that Gemelli has managed to achieve a level of efficiency such as “to be achieved 2% lower CO30 emissions compared to organizations (for example of an industrial type) of the same size”, concludes Pesaro.
