Policy Solution

Cool hospital design

Mandate

Overview:

Summary: Keeping hospitals cool can help protect patients. New hospitals or renovations should be proactively designed to keep the building cool through its orientation and construction.

Implementation: Require new hospitals to adhere to cool building design standards with an emphasis on passive cooling strategies.

Considerations for Use: Preparation for extreme heat can help hospitals prepare for other climate events.

  • Policy Levers: The mechanism municipalities can use to actualize the intervention. These policy levers will likely be used in combination with each other.

    MandateMandates are government regulations that require stakeholders to meet standards through building codes, ordinances, zoning policies, or other regulatory tools.
  • Trigger Points: Opportunities for municipalities to implement risk reduction and preparedness interventions based on the policy lever, building on the United Nations Environment Programme triggers used in the Beating the Heat handbook (2021).

    Introducing new or updated zoning/codesIncludes codes, zoning requirements or by-laws pertaining to urban planning and building construction activity.
  • Intervention Type:
    Buildings and Built Form
  • Sectors:
    Emergency management, Informal Settlements, Public Health

    Impact:

  • Target Beneficiaries:
    Heat-vulnerable communities, Residents
  • Phase of Impact:
    Emergency response and management
  • Metrics:
    Decrease in power outages, Energy savings

Implementation:

  • Intervention Scale:
    Building
  • Authority and Governance:
    City government, State/provincial government
  • Implementation Timeline:
    Long-term (10+ Years)
  • Implementation Stakeholders:
    City government, State/provincial government
  • Funding Sources:
    private investment
  • Capacity to Act:
    High, Medium

    Benefits:

  • Cost-Benefit:
    Medium
  • Public Good:
    Low
  • GHG Reduction:
    N/A
  • Co-benefits (Climate/Environmental):
    N/A
  • Co-benefits (Social):
    Improve human health, Save on utilities