UCI Health — Irvine hospital is landmark in healthcare sustainability
Planning, design and construction team ‘challenged ourselves to do better’ when building all-electric hospital
IN THE NEWS: Reducing the reliance on fossil fuels in the healthcare industry is often a pipe dream. Yet, UCI Health –– Irvine stands as the nation’s first all-electric acute care hospital. If it loses power, diesel-powered generators step in as a backup.
Paul Da Veiga, director of planning, design and construction with UCI Health, spoke with Pattrn, a weekend sustainability program on the Weather Channel, about the use of fossil fuels in hospitals.
“The standard hospital, up until UCI Health –– Irvine, was highly reliant on fossil fuels and centralized steam production through a central plant. We looked at that model and challenged ourselves to do better.
“The University of California has a long-term commitment to sustainability with overarching objectives to eliminate the use of fossil fuels. This gave us the unique opportunity to build a brand-new hospital that pushed the envelope.”
He also spoke about the hospital’s all-electric ghost kitchen.
“Our culinary staff had some initial angst about not having a gas line in our ghost kitchen. They have now witnessed firsthand how electric technology allows them to create meals, complete with char marks, that taste the same as if they were cooked with fossil fuels.”
Da Veiga led the planning, design and construction of the UCI Health –– Irvine medical complex. The UCI Health –– Irvine acute care hospital, which opened in December 2025, is a seven-story, 144-bed general acute care hospital with a 24-hour emergency department.
Also on the complex are the Chao Family Comprehensive Cancer Center and Ambulatory Care building and the Joe C. Wen & Family Center for Advanced Care.
About UCI Health
UCI Health, one of California’s largest academic health systems, is the clinical enterprise of the University of California, Irvine. The 1,461-bed system comprises its main campus UCI Health — Orange, its flagship hospital, the UCI Health — Irvine acute care hospital and medical campus, four hospitals and affiliated physicians of the UCI Health Community Network in Orange and Los Angeles counties and a network of ambulatory care centers across the region. UCI Health — Orange provides tertiary and quaternary care and is home to the only Orange County-based National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer center, high-risk perinatal/neonatal program and American College of Surgeons-verified Level I adult and Level II pediatric trauma center, gold level 1 geriatric emergency department and regional burn center. Powered by UC Irvine, UCI Health serves 5.6 million people in Orange County, western Riverside County and southeast Los Angeles County. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter).