Every time a renovation job at Norfolk General Hospital in Simcoe, Ontario, began, J.J. Knott, the facility’s director of plant operations, faced a new problem, according to an article on the Simcoe Reformer website.

“As soon as I walked through the door, we were tearing down walls to create new diagnostic suites. It started Day 1,” said Knott, who retired at the end of last year after 23-years-plus of service.

Knott's work went beyond the physical building. He also helped write up emergency plans on how the hospital could operate under horrendous circumstances: long-term power outages (thousands of gallons of diesel fuel are store onsite to run generators), water shortages, flu pandemics and terrorist attacks in the community.

He calls making NGH more energy efficient — saving $400,000 a year — his greatest achievement.

Knott is also chair of the Canadian Health Care Engineering Society, which helped form another organization, the Healthcare Energy Leaders Ontario, which helps hospitals across the province become more energy efficient.

“Over the past year, we put together $17 million (a year) in savings for the system,” he said. “Our target is to hit $80 million over time. We will strive to hit that target.”

Read the article.