Sustainable Laboratory Facility Solutions Beyond LEED®

Dirk von Below, Flad Architects
Joseph Ostafi, Flad Architects

The tools provided by the U.S. Green Building Council's (USGBC's) LEED rating system and other international green facility design benchmarks are useful for performance-based goal setting; however, they can also stifle imagination and obscure fundamental goals through their use of standards-based criteria.

This presentation will examine a case study in which the client's sustainability goals surpassed the limitations of these systems and an architectural team was able to align those goals with the client's business, operation, and maintenance strategies.

Flad Architects was commissioned to design a 500,000-square-foot, world-class chemical and biological laboratory for renewable energy science, while strictly minimizing the environmental footprint for this carbon-intensive project. The facility will be located in a tropical environment of a developing country, where the infrastructure for recycling, public transportation, and awareness of sustainability issues is limited or nonexistent. The design must measurably improve sustainable design technologies and methodologies in the region, moving beyond simply being efficient about its resource consumption.

In order to meet the challenge, client stakeholders, as well as the design team, had to address the demands and cost issues involved with a zero carbon, net-zero energy, zero waste, and net-zero water development project. From the outset, the design team had to move beyond the dominant global benchmarks (e.g., LEED, BREEAM), to identify and use innovative, sustainable practices specific to this location and this type of laboratory.

This presentation will address how the design team worked to understand and address the client's goals, including:

  • Maintaining a balanced budget of net energy neutrality.
  • Achieving a zero-carbon footprint.
  • Producing zero waste during construction and when in operation.
  • Maximizing public transportation and zero-emission vehicles.
  • Treating wastewater on site.
  • Fostering onsite life and creating habitat exchange.
  • Engaging the staff in progressive energy focused improvements.
  • Transforming the company and the country so that it adopts a more sustainable lifestyle.
  • Connecting the workplace to the outside and to nature.

This project has the opportunity to set a new standard for scientific research facilities in the tropics and to establish new sustainable construction applications and methodologies for the benefit of the region and others like it.

Biographies:

Dirk von Below has 18 years of comprehensive architectural experience including cost estimates, planning, and quality assurance. He has worked for international clients on projects that were managed in German and English. He has managed large projects where he had to balance state-of-the-art design, efficiency, and environmental design within a tight financial framework. Mr. von Below is a LEED certified professional and is a member of USGBC. His project experience at Flad includes: International Energy Research and Development Laboratory; National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility in Golden, Colorado; Stony Brook University, Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center in Stony Brook, New York; and New York State Department of Energy Conservation, Alternate Fuel Vehicle Research Laboratory in Malta, New York.

Joseph Ostafi has 14 years of architectural experience in research facilities for academic, corporate, and government clients. His focus has been in the design of science and technology facilities including laboratory planning, clean energy, and site master planning. An innovative designer, he thrives on projects that present unique and complex sets of challenges. Mr. Ostafi is a LEED certified professional and is a member of USGBC. Mr. Ostafi is the project architect and designer for the International Energy Research and Development Laboratory; New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Alternate Fuel Vehicle Research Laboratory in Malta, New York; the Stony Brook University Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center in Stony Brook, New York; New York State Department of Energy Conservation, Alternate Fuel Vehicle Research Laboratory in Malta, New York; U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Products Laboratory in Madison, Wisconsin; NREL, Integrated Biorefinery Research Facility in Golden, Colorado; Confidential Client, Sustainable Energy Research Center in the United Kingdom; and the liaison for the University of Wisconsin–Madison, Wisconsin Bioenergy Initiative.