International Sustainable Laboratory
Programs
Carbon Neutral Laboratories
Led by: Beth Shearer, International Institute for Sustainable
Laboratories and Will Lintner, U.S. Department of Energy, Federal
Energy Management Program
In the midst of the climate change debate, and on the heels
of the "2030 Challenge," Congress is proposing a new
bill that will require all federal facilities to be carbon neutral
by 2050. The proposed "Carbon Neutral Government Act of
2007" will give agencies two years from the date the bill
is signed to develop a plan for reducing carbon emissions. The
tools developed by Labs21 and program resources will become
increasingly vital as federal facility managers work to meet
this aggressive goal. This interactive morning roundtable explored
the implications of a carbon neutral goal for federal facilities,
what key hurdles laboratory facilities will face, and how Labs21
can assist laboratories aiming to zero out their carbon emissions.
Benchmarking Part I: Energy Benchmarking
for University Laboratories
Led by: Nathan Gauthier, Harvard University Green Campus Initiative;
Peter James, Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement;
and Paul A. Mathew, Ph.D., Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Energy benchmarking is an effective tool for owners to track
the energy performance of their laboratories and identify and
prioritize efficiency improvements. This session focused on
the particular opportunities and challenges faced by universities
in benchmarking their laboratories. Topics covered during the
session included:
- Benchmarking objectives and integration with overall university
energy use
- Management policies and objectives
- Benchmarking methods and tools
- Data collection and sharing
Laboratory Ventilation Management
Programs
Led by: Tom Smith, Exposure Control Technologies, Inc.
Laboratory personnel working with hazardous materials depend
on proper operation of the building ventilation systems to provide
safe, comfortable, and productive environments for research.
Keeping the ventilation systems operating safely while maintaining
high levels of energy efficiency requires careful management
of system operations and effective use of available resources.
The Laboratory Ventilation Management Program (LVMP) developed
by EPA teaches a process of sustaining performance of ventilation
systems and energy efficiency by using available tools to minimize
resource expenditure. Nearly all laboratories are affected by
resource limitations, which include budget, staff, and time
constraints. The LVMP provides a tool to enhance the ability
of a laboratory to maintain efficient operation of the systems
by maximizing effectiveness of limited resources.
The LVMP combines periodic tests that challenge operation of
the systems over the operational boundary conditions with information
collected by the building automation systems (BAS) to identify
problems and target repair and maintenance activities. Critical
operating data or key metrics that define operation of the ventilation
systems are compared to baseline or benchmark data collected
during TAB and system commissioning. The tasks of the LVMP are
scheduled to permit identification of problems, rapid diagnosis,
and targeted repairs. The LVMP strives to maintain safe and
efficient operation while minimizing wasted effort by concentrating
on the main factors affecting laboratory safety and energy efficiency.
Issues discussed during this forum included:
- Key operating metrics for laboratory ventilation systems
- Maintenance management process
- Roles and responsibilities
- Recommended maintenance tasks and activities
- Procedures for hood, laboratory, and system tests
- Utilization of BAS monitoring and trends
- Data analysis and reporting
- Schedules for test and maintenance tasks
Proper Measure of Laboratory
Ventilation
Led by: Philip Bartholomew, CUH2A, Inc.
This session examined the validity of the air change rate
of measuring ventilation effectiveness of dilution ventilation
for laboratory spaces. The characteristics of dilution ventilation
are demonstrated by using a water based model. This model uses
both a visual tracer and quantifiable fluorescent tracer to
simulate the effectiveness of dilution with different volumes
in both a steady state as well as spill/decay mode. Attendees
had the opportunity to discuss proposed metrics for defining
the quantity of dilution ventilation to replace the "air
change per hour" method used by many of the standards and
agencies that establish criteria for laboratory design.
Benchmarking II: Benchmarking
Federal Laboratories
Led by: Dan Amon, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Paul
Mathew, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
The federal government is under an increasing amount of pressure
to improve energy and water efficiency and incorporate additional
sustainable design principles at all federal facilities, including
laboratories. To encourage environmentally sustainable design
and operations within the federal real estate portfolio, the
Energy Policy Act of 2005 and Executive Order 13423 have established
aggressive energy and water reduction targets; pending legislation
is likely to result in even more stringent energy-related requirements
for federal facilities. While these requirements will likely
be a challenge for typical office buildings, the increased process
loads and energy and water intensities in laboratories will
make these goals considerably more challenging for the federal
research community. As the federal community develops strategies
for meeting these challenging goals, the ability to effectively
benchmark performance of both new and existing facilities is
becoming increasingly important. This interactive morning roundtable
reviewed several best practices for benchmarking laboratory
performance and also discussed how Labs21 tools, such as the
Labs21 benchmarking database, can assist laboratories with specifying
and tracking metrics over the course of design, delivery, and
operation.
International Sustainable
Laboratory Programs
Led by: International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories
and U.S. Department of State
Following the Labs21 Conference Symposia: Sustainable
Laboratories in the Middle East and North Africa, a technical
session dedicated to Australian
perspectives; the steps by Labs21 UK into Europe over the
past year; and the ever increasing international attendance
at the Labs21 Conference; the International Institute for Sustainable
Laboratories (I2SL) and the U.S. Department of State
hosted this informal morning roundtable to discuss the opportunities
to develop region-specific sustainable laboratory programming
outside the United States.
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