Energy efficiency empowering the future of cancer care

“Energy efficiency has very little to do with turning off lights,” deadpans Greg Norris, a mechanical engineer who directs MD Anderson’s Energy and Utility Program.

Norris, who came to MD Anderson nearly 19 years ago, oversees energy procurement strategies and contract negotiations; coordinates the development of utility-related activities around system upgrades, building construction and inspections; forecasts energy usage, demand and rates; and identifies areas for utility cost reduction.

And he’s doing all of this amid the implementation of our Blueprint for Impact, MD Anderson’s flexible master facilities plan to shape the next era of cancer care and discovery. As the organization expands and modernizes its facilities to embrace health care delivery models of the future, Norris sees the greatest opportunities for energy efficiency in three key areas: growth, digital transformation and heat recovery.

Growth and design 

“We’re in the midst of massive growth at MD Anderson,” says Norris, who also sits on the Institutional Energy and Sustainability Advisory Committee. “In our Blueprint for Impact — which includes a clinical services building, a new bed tower, a vivarium, a Sugar Land facility and more — a good amount of a building’s efficiency is set at design.”

This gives MD Anderson the opportunity to manifest the most efficient buildings available. Norris’ team is tasked with staying up to speed on any new discoveries or revelations around energy, striving for flexible designs that include equipment and control strategies that allow a building to consume only what is needed for the space, given the time of day, the time of year and the activities occurring within it.

“We need to be able to evaluate quickly and inform new projects of energy transitions and breakthroughs taking place around the world,” he says. 

Digital transformation to better match energy use and need

The conservation journey of the past few decades, Norris continues, has also been defined by a digital control revolution that allows us to better match energy use and energy needs, and to provide immediate feedback on performance.

“Our systems inform us when there are problems and also where those problems are,” Norris says. “If the system points us to a major issue, that helps in broader problem-solving. When your systems are informing you, the fault detections are so much better.”

In turn, digital controls are helping dictate requirements for new buildings.  

“We are constantly asking: How can we take valuable digital information from our systems and put that into design guidelines?” he says.

Recycling heat to enable energy-efficient buildings 

What excites Norris the most is reusing energy that MD Anderson has already purchased.

“Our buildings have heating and cooling needs year-round,” he says. “We are doing both at the same time, so heat recovery is important.”

Heat recovery chillers, a type of HVAC system, can provide heating and cooling simultaneously by recovering waste heat from the cooling process and using it to produce hot water for space heating, domestic hot water, or other needs.

MD Anderson utilizes this heat recovery technology with machines located in Alkek Hospital and the Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan Building for Personalized Cancer Care.

 The upcoming Clinical Services Building will be the first to include a heat recovery chiller as a design standard and in collaboration with Thermal Energy Corporation (TECO) – the Texas Medical Center’s heating and cooling utility provider.

“This is truly the future,” Norris says. “Similar to the recycling principles of reduce and reuse, we are recycling heat, getting the benefit of some cooling in the process, and enjoying a huge reduction in purchased heating and cooling. For our new facilities, we are thinking about everywhere where there is waste heat. And this, too, is taking advantage of the digital transformation.”

Healing for our environment and our patients  

Energy efficiency is only possible with teamwork, Norris says, noting that many teams across MD Anderson play a vital role in embracing and supporting energy conservation.

“Opportunities are endless at MD Anderson, but they rely on our culture of collaboration,” he says. 

Norris sees energy efficiency as inextricably intertwined with MD Anderson’s commitment to patients and their families.

“MD Anderson's mission is one of healing,” Norris says, “and we have the opportunity to be as regenerative to our environment as we are to our patients.”

Learn more about MD Anderson’s Houston expansion.