Dubbed the “Medical City” and located in Lake Nona, it is the future home of the Burnham Institute, the UCF Medical College, Nemours Children’s Hospital, Anderson Orlando Cancer Research Institute, and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Thoughtful consideration of the environment is incorporated into the construction of each of these projects. Everything from conservation of Florida’s natural resources, to increased energy efficiency, and improved indoor air quality, have been considered before these projects even broke ground.

Lake Nona is a community located on what is thought to be the last major piece of undeveloped land in the City of Orlando. Although the word “green” gets thrown around a lot, a green building is basically a building that is safe and healthy for people and our environment. Specific certifications, such as the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), a third-party certification program, help to formally identify a green building.

Before the Medical City even opens for business, steps are being taken to help protect Florida’s environment. For example, the Burnham Institute will soon open its first facility, a 175,000 square-foot laboratory and administrative building as a green facility. Deborah Robison, Director of Communications for the Burnham Institute for Medical Research, states that Burnham is expected to be one of the three largest LEED certified scientific buildings in the state. During the construction phase, Burnham has diverted 95% of construction waste from landfills, recycling metal, crushing concrete waste to use as a road base, and chopping wood into mulch.

Additionally, the Burnham building uses an “albedo roof” made of a white membrane which reflects heat and meets the SRI (Solar Reflective Index) requirement. Other materials used include Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified products, such as wood doors, made from forests that are sustained with new tree plantings as well as selected building materials with low VOC (volatile organic compounds) which don’t give off gas/odors.

The Nemours campus will consist of a children’s hospital, clinic, emergency department, diagnostic and ambulatory programs, along with education and research centers spanning 600,000 square feet. According to Nemours’ Karen Breakell, Director of Public & Community Relations, Nemours is excavating its own storm water collection pond. “We plan to use the soil removed to create the pond as part of the on-site grading fill required for the hospital design and also drain a majority of roof storm water and site drainage to the pond and repurpose it for all site irrigation water.”

Nemours registered with the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) in August for LEED certification. The facility design is oriented east and west to focus on maximizing natural day lighting and views to nature, including two vegetated roof gardens and a healing discovery garden.

The 50-acre University of Central Florida (UCF) Health Sciences Campus consisting of over two million square-feet of instructional and research space, is expected to obtain the LEED silver certification. Zenaida Gonzalez Kotala, University Writer for UCF, states that UCF’s medical facilities will strive to meet standards of recycling at least 50% of the waste generated during construction, designing facilities to be more energy and water efficient, and maintaining buildings with environmentally friendly products.

The new facility for the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center will increase accessibility to health care for veterans and employ up to 2,500 people. Bart Bruchok, Senior Resident Engineer for the Orlando VA Medical Center says that the Orlando VA Center design team is committed to a design that is functional, attractive, and responsive to energy efficiency and environmental design principles. The team is using the LEED rating system and the American Society of Healthcare Engineers (ASHE) Green Guidelines for Healthcare (GGHC) to guide design strategies that will be integrated into the planning, construction and operation of the new hospital.