Increasing Sustainability at Government Laboratories
William Lintner, U.S. Department of Energy
In the past, DOE has been among the three most energy-intensive federal agencies. This is in part due to the number of facilities with high process loads, including laboratories. DOE has set an aggressive goal for all of its facilities, including laboratories, which is to meet, exceed, and lead federal mandates. This goal, mandated by DOE Order 430.2b, was designed to position DOE as the federal government leader in energy management.
This presentation will address activities that DOE is carrying out to achieve energy reduction goals and increase sustainability at its laboratory campuses. DOE has prioritized the use of private party financing tools, such as energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs), utility energy savings contracts, and power purchase agreements. Several ESPC projects have been successfully implemented at DOE laboratories. In addition, all new buildings and major renovations in the future will be LEED® Gold certified.
In 2009, the Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) issued a call for projects using funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. There are several projects underway at DOE laboratories. Also in the last year, President Obama signed Executive Order 13514, which required agencies to set greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets. DOE has set its GHG reduction target at 28 percent from a 2008 baseline, which it must reach by 2020. DOE has laboratory campuses in each region of the country, and GHG reductions are a new challenge.
The presentation will also cover some of the ongoing activities across the federal government. Six other civilian agencies also have laboratory facilities, and FEMP is providing training and technical assistance to help them meet federal GHG and energy reduction goals. It will also address data centers and IT, which are a growing component of laboratory energy load and how government laboratories are working to mitigate their impact.
Biography:
William Lintner is currently a general engineer with FEMP's applied technology services and is DOE's project manager for the Labs21 Program. He has been the project manager since the inception of Labs21. With EPA's managers, he has guided Labs21 through a period of rapid growth to become an exemplary model of public–private sector cooperation and the premier organization dedicated to applying sustainable principles to laboratories.
Mr. Lintner has championed sustainable best practices, primarily energy
efficiency, for more than 25 years, first with the Department of the Navy
and more recently with DOE. In 2000, he was recognized for his contributions
to reducing DOE's operating costs by more than $100 million per year through
investments in energy efficiency retrofit projects. More recently, he
has led initiatives to spur facility managers to adopt best practices
in their operations. Through these efforts, sustainable design and re-commissioning
of buildings have become standard practices, and DOE has come to lead
the federal government in the number of buildings that are LEED-certified
and the number of laboratories registered to be certified. Mr. Lintner
is a professional engineer in the Commonwealth of Virginia. He is a graduate
of George Washington University and George Mason University.