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Expanding the Sustainability of Laboratories
Egbert Dittrich, EGNATON
Expanding the Sustainability of Laboratories Addressing Equipment and User Behavior Sustainability is in the focus. Pushed by architectural influence the majority focus on the design of buildings. In terms of life cycle, impact of laboratory process and user behavior, as well as technical equipment such as plug-in-units, seem not to be considered seriously.
The presentation will clearly show that a mix of topics can only achieve sustainability. Laboratory apparatus have a major influence and enable users to achieve sustainability, provided it offers energy saving, safety and other sustainable design features. No matter how sustainable the building might be influence by the laboratory process impressively dominate the impact in regard to sustainable aspects. Increases in the number of 'plug-ins' also multiply those effects.
The major doctrine must be: safety beats any other category in the sustainability evaluating system, e.g. reduction of air exchange rates shall be achieved only after a proper risk assessment is completed. Human activity and their needs and wellbeing are much important to address efficiency and research output. By those means lab designers have to keep an eye on comfort, communication options and individual situations of the users. Therefore lab planners need to be educated in safety strategies.
Certainly, sustainability can hardly be achieved in a non sustainable building with non sustainable equipment and instruments, but it is easy to operate a building with a high sustainability assessment in a not sustainable way. Users have the key to operate the building in accordance with the sustainable design criteria.
Once the building is occupied, only through daily monitoring and feed-back to operators and users with respect to benchmarks can a collaborative process occur in meeting long-term performance goals that can be verified. Life cycle cost and assessment of the building's central plant are important but operators must know that user processes (i.e., equipment and plug-in-units) cannot be ignored. The impact of the plug-in-units for example must be considered to ensure overall sustainability of the lab.
The presentation will give an overview of the effort being pursued by EGNATON to create an equipment certification system which includes rules for product characterization and environmental declarations for laboratory apparatus and equipment.
Objectives: 1. Support a better appreciation of the impact of user behavior and their use of equipment on laboratory sustainability. 2. Introduction to one European strategy to address lab sustainability through lab equipment choices. 3. Encouraging equipment certification as a performance indicator for users and owners.
65 years old, German citizen, Holds a diploma in business engineering. For 25 years CEO and owner of several tap manufacturers of residential and laboratory service fixtures. Since 15 years business consultant in the laboratory field. Managing director of European association of sustainable Laboratories, author of "Handbook for sustainable laboratories".
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