Evercare earns Nigeria’s first EDGE-certified project in hospitality sector

Evercare Hospital has made history as the first hospital in Nigeria to receive final EDGE certification as a resource-efficient and environmentally friendly designed building healthcare project.

An innovation of Internation Finance Corporation (IFC) EDGE helps property developers to build and brand green in a fast, easy, and affordable way. EDGE is supported by free software that encourages solutions to reduce energy, water and the energy used to make building materials by at least 20 per cent, which is the standard for EDGE certification.

The programme has been supported by Austria, Canada, Denmark, ESMAP, European Union, Finland, Global Environment Facility (GEF0, Hungary, Japan, United Kingdom and Switzerland.

In Nigeria, EDGE has certified projects in Lagos, Abuja, Maiduguri and Benin City. Over the past four years, EDGE has supported several forward-looking pioneers of green buildings to lead a profitable transformation of the country’s real estate sector.

Specifically, SpecSintali-SGS, an environmental certification body and global certification partner for IFC’s EDGE green building programme, said that Evercare Hospital Lekki’s resource-efficient design achieved 38.81 per cent reduction in energy usage, 20.50 per cent in water consumption and 42.07 per cent in materials’ embodied energy compared to a local benchmark.

The hospital is a modern, 165-bed purpose-built multispecialty, tertiary care private state-of-the-art hospital, located in Lekki, Lagos. It is part of the Evercare Group of hospitals, which provides integrated healthcare delivery services in emerging markets across Africa and South Asia, including India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Kenya.

The hospital offers care across a range of speciality medical and surgical services and is delivering high quality, and accessible healthcare to communities in Lagos.

“We are excited that Evercare Hospital Lekki has achieved final EDGE certification. This milestone is testimonial to the hospital’s vision for leading sustainable change in Nigeria’s health care industry.

“It also shows that it is possible for hospitals, which consume 2.5 times the energy of an equivalent commercial building, to provide enhanced care for its patients as well the planet,” according to Global Manager, IFC EDGE Green Building Market Transformation Programme, Corinne Figueredo.

CEO Evercare Hospital Lekki, Rajeev Bhandari, said:
“Hospitals are where people go to get better and the comfort and ambience of it can fast track healing in a placebo-like effect. We are happy to work with EDGE towards ensuring that our hospital provides quality and advanced medical and healthcare services to Nigerians in an environmentally friendly environment.

“This is because, we believe that medical facilities can provide state-of-the-art treatment, while minimising energy and water use if the right decisions are made at the design stage. Additionally, this will help us cut operational costs. Working with EDGE, we have been able to target those areas where technologies can significantly reduce energy bills and help facility managers stay within tight budgets.”

EDGE adopters include Alphamead Development Company, Echostone, Alliance Capital, Greenage, Modern Shelter, MISA, American University, Karmod Nigeria, Sachela Limited, Student Accommod8 and Stanbic IBTC.