An Interactive Tour of the Labs21 Toolkit

Paul Mathew, Dale Sartor, and Geoffrey Bell, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Objectives:

The sustainable design of laboratories can be particularly challenging, given their inherent complexity of systems, health and safety requirements, long-term flexibility and adaptability needs, energy use intensity, and environmental impacts. Tools such as design guides, energy benchmarking, and LEED™ rating systems are especially helpful to support sustainable design in such buildings. Furthermore, designers need guidance on how to effectively and appropriately use each tool within the context of an integrated design process involving multiple actors with various objectives.

Toward this end, the Laboratories for the 21st Century (Labs21) program has developed an interlinked set of tools - the Labs21 Toolkit - to support an integrated design process for sustainable laboratories. In this session, we present the Labs21 Toolkit, and illustrate how these tools can be used to support sustainable design within an integrated design process.

Findings:

The tool kit includes core information tools, as well as process-related tools, as indicated below:

• Core information tools:
  • A Design Guide, which is a compendium of publications on energy efficiency in laboratories
  • Case Studies that showcase high-performance design features and applications.
  • Best Practice Guides that highlight industry-leading sustainable design strategies.
  • A web-based Benchmarking Tool to benchmark laboratory energy performance.
    
• Process tools:
• A Design Intent Tool, which can be used to used to plan, document, and verify that a facility's design intent is being met at each stage of the design process.
• The Environmental Performance Criteria (EPC), a rating system specifically designed for laboratory facilities that builds on the LEED™ system.
• A web-based Process Manual, that provides a "portal" to the tools and a step-by-step process for using these tools during each stage of the design process.

Labs21 Connection:

• Establish goals, track performance, and share results for continuous improvement.
• Assess opportunities from a "whole buildings" approach.
• Use life-cycle cost analysis as an important decision-making tool.
• Incorporate a comprehensive, whole building commissioning process into new construction and retrofit projects.
• Employ a range of energy and water efficiency strategies.
  Measure energy and water consumption and track emission reductions.

Biographies:

Paul Mathew is a Staff Scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. He has a Bachelor's degree in Architecture, and a Ph.D. in Building Performance and Diagnostics from Carnegie Mellon University. His area of expertise is energy efficiency and environmental sustainability, and his experience includes technical consulting, tool development, training and financial risk management. Prior to joining LBNL, he worked for Enron Energy Services and the Center for Building Performance at Carnegie Mellon University.

Dale Sartor, PE, heads the LBNL Building Technologies Applications Team, which assists in the transfer of new and underutilized technology through project-focused multidisciplinary teams. Mr. Sartor has an A.B. in Architecture, and a Masters in Business Administration. He is a licensed Mechanical Engineer, and a licensed General Building Contractor. He has over twenty five years of professional experience in energy efficiency and renewable energy applications including ten years as a principal of an architecture and engineering company, and seven years as the head of LBNL's In-House Energy Management Program. Mr. Sartor is an active volunteer in professional organizations and lectures extensively.

Geoffrey Bell is an Energy Engineer in the Environmental Energy Technology Division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). He is credited with a number of publications, including serving as a principal author of the Design Guide for Energy Efficient Laboratories. This publication is intended to assist facility owners, architects, engineers, designers, facility managers, and utility energy-management specialists in identifying and applying advanced energy-efficiency features in laboratory-type environments. Mr. Bell is a Certified State Energy Auditor in New Mexico and a Registered Professional Engineer in both New Mexico and California. He has served as an investigator for the U.S. Department of Energy, a teacher at the University of New Mexico, and an energy engineer contractor to Sandia Corporation in addition to various other mechanical engineering consulting positions. Mr. Bell received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Newark College of Engineering and a masters of architecture in Environmental Design from the University of New Mexico.