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The Yale Univ. Class of 1954 Chemistry Research Building, New Haven, Conn., was honored with a Project award for new construction. Photo courtesy of Bohlin Cywinski Jackson.
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The International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL), in partnership with
R&D Magazine and
Laboratory Design newsletter, has announced the recipients of its second annual Go Beyond Awards program. The program honors individuals, organizations, projects and laboratory manufacturers that “go beyond” the status quo to minimize the environmental impacts of laboratory and other high-tech facilities and lab equipment.
Award winners have shown a commitment to the goals of Laboratories for the 21st Century (Labs21), the joint sustainability program of the EPA and the Dept. of Energy, and that excellence in sustainability means going beyond the laboratory, beyond the United States, and beyond being “green” when considering building projects, products and services. Awards were presented at the Labs21 2009 annual conference in Indianapolis in late September.
The second annual Go Beyond Awards recognized the following individuals, projects and products. (No organizational award was presented this year.)
Individual awards
D. Randall Lacey, Cornell Univ., Ithaca, N.Y., received an individual award. As university engineer at Cornell, Lacey has done everything from designing to managing to operating laboratory facilities, but it is his work outside of his regular day job that prompted the award committee to recognize him.
For years Lacey has been a staunch supporter of the Labs21 program. He has presented several times at the Labs21 annual conference, sharing his lessons learned and experiences on topics such as selecting and operating laboratory systems and climate-neutral research campuses. Lacey is a Labs21-registered instructor of the Labs21 Operations and Maintenance (O&M) course and helped update the course in 2008 to include information that was more relevant to the O&M community. The course was well-received at the Labs21 2008 annual conference and is still being offered on a rotating basis. Lacey also participated in discussions to help transition the O&M course to a webinar format.
Lacey applies the Labs21 approach to the various laboratory projects he works on for Cornell, which have ranged from biohazard laboratories to animal facilities to pharmaceutical facilities, and other unusual laboratory types. He also serves as a leader and advocate for Labs21 at the university.
Cornell has been involved with the Labs21 program since it began, is a Labs21 Partner, and has adopted and incorporated the Labs21 approach across their campus.
An Honorable Mention award in the Individual category was presented to Thomas C. Smith, Exposure Control Technologies Inc. (ECT), Cary, N.C.
As founder and president of ECT, Smith has demonstrated a clear commitment to sustainability. He has created an organization that makes it a priority to help customers save energy while operating safe laboratories. Today, ECT is saving millions in energy costs and cubic tons of carbon emissions through the implementation of their fully sustainable programs throughout the United States.
For years, Smith has directly supported the Labs21 mission by presenting, often more than once per meeting, at annual conferences; reviewing Labs21 Best Practice Guides and Technical Bulletins; and regularly teaching Labs21 workshops. He was a co-developer of the O&M training course. In addition, Smith is a recognized leader in commissioning laboratory facilities and fume hoods by applying Labs21 methods and design approaches. He has commissioned several EPA laboratories and has successfully reduced their energy use by applying innovative techniques and methods that are based on Labs21 principles.
Smith’s Labs21 conference presentations have covered topics such as laboratory ventilation systems, fume hood performance and testing, and laboratory safety. He was invited to expand on his fume hood presentation for publication in R&D Magazine’s 2008 Laboratory Design Handbook. The expanded abstract was published by R&D Magazine in November 2007 and was also included in I2SL’s E-Library.
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Winners of Go Beyond awards included (left to right): Tom Smith, Exposure Control Technologies (individual honorable mention); Gordon Sharp, Aircuity (equipment manufacturer); Jay Jeffries, FDA (representing the FDA Muirkirk Road Complex); D. Randall Lacey (individual winner); Jon Jackson, Bohlin Cywinski Jackson (representing the Yale Univ. Class of 1954 Chemistry Research Building). Photo courtesy of I2SL.
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Beginning in late 2008, Smith began working with I2SL to transfer the Labs21 O&M Workshop into a webinar-appropriate format. He led the charge to revise the workshop by developing and including audience polls to encourage interaction and by removing excess information to reduce time needed for the session. He also taught the first webinar in April 2009 and provided Labs21 feedback on how to improve future sessions.
Smith’s involvement on ASHRAE and American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Laboratory Ventilation Standard Z9.5-2003 committees provides Labs21 with a valuable connection to these impactful groups.
Project—New Construction
The Yale Univ. Class of 1954 Chemistry Research Building, New Haven, Conn., was honored with a Project award. Yale’s first LEED Silver building, the 100,000-ft2 Chemistry Research Building, has helped the university save more than 16 billion British thermal units (Btu), 225,000 gal of water, and more than $282,000 annually. It was more than just the goal of LEED certification that helped the building designers and engineers achieve its energy, water, and cost savings. Application of the Labs21 Environmental Performance Criteria (EPC), which focused more heavily on the special uses of the laboratory building than LEED, provided the major guidance for development of this green building.
The building provides a high quality of life and energy efficiency through open, north-facing laboratories. Tall windows light the deep, densely occupied research spaces and student write-up areas, and enhance safety by providing clearly lit hoods and benches. Smaller windows with horizontal sun shades reduce glare and summer heat gain in south-facing offices. The ventilation system conserves thermal energy by first tempering air to condition offices, subsequently reusing it in the laboratory zone, ultimately exhausting it through double-sashed, reduced-volume fume hoods. A heat recovery system preconditions intake air.
Water use is reduced about 68% by collecting water used to backwash the water systems to flush toilets and urinals. Process water use, including laboratory faucets, is reduced by 33% by a chilled water loop in lieu of once-through water for process water used in chemistry laboratory spaces. The closed-loop system minimizes use of potable water.
A 25% reduction in design energy costs was seen compared with the energy cost budget in ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-1999 through the tempering ventilation and heat recover system. Fume hood occupancy sensors and zone presence sensors lower the rate of ventilation air required from 12 air changes per hour (ACH) to 6 ACH in the laboratory spaces when the sensors determine that the laboratory space is unoccupied.
During construction of the facility, 72% of the waste accumulated was diverted from landfills, 8% of the materials used contained recycled content, and 51% of the materials were from regional sources.
The following organizations and their contributions provided the backbone for the success of the Yale Chemistry Research Building: Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, Wilkes-Barre, Penn. (design architect); Cannon Design, town (executive architect and structural engineer); Vanderweil Engineers, town (MEP engineer); Research Facilities Design, San Diego (laboratory consultant); ReTec, town (lighting design).
Project—Renovation or Adaptive Reuse
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Muirkirk Road Complex, Laurel, Md., also received a Project award. The FDA maintains several laboratories at its Muirkirk Road Complex, to conduct research programs under the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health and the Center for Veterinary Medicine. Laboratories at the sites are part of the Food Emergency Response Network (FERN) developed to protect the U.S. food supply. Several laboratories are also members of the Laboratory Response Network developed for emergency preparedness and response.
Under a Utility Energy Service Contract (UESC), Washington Gas performed a Water and Energy Investment Grade Audit for the Muirkirk Road Complex facilities including Energy Conservation Measures (ECMs). Just a few of the 21 ECMs proposed in the audit included:
- Autoclave steam condensate tempering.
- Air handling unit condensate and reverse osmosis reject water reuse.
- Bathroom fixture retrofits.
- Chiller and plant modernization.
- Vent steam heat recovery.
- Direct digital control system upgrades and Phoenix valve installation.
- Variable frequency drives installation.
- Steam pipe and valve insulation.
- Damper replacement.
- Steam trap retrofit.
- Occupancy sensor installation.
The FDA also turned to the Dept. of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory in reviewing Washington Gas’s audit report for technical accuracy and projected cost savings as well as the cost reasonableness of their proposal to implement the ECMs.
After the ECMs were implemented, the agency immediately began to see savings, which equated to more than $1 million in the first year alone. FDA expects the simple payback on the project to be less than 10 years.
The FDA and Washington Gas attribute the success of the implementation of these ECMs to the exceptional project management, technical expertise and collaboration between FDA’s Walter Coto and David Harrell of Washington Gas.
The FDA team, Damon Downing and John Bassler of Washington Gas, and the Labs21 technical team representative, Otto Van Geet, received a 2007 Dept. of Health and Human Services Energy and Water Management group award for the UESC as a result of the outstanding implementation and success of the ECMs at the Muirkirk Road Complex. These awards honor champions in the HHS who have made significant contributions to the energy conservation and environmental goals of the agency.
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The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Muirkirk Road Complex, Laurel, Md., won a Project award for energy retrofits under a Utility Energy Service Contract (UESC). Photo courtesy of the FDA.
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Equipment manufacturer award
Aircuity, which received the 2009 Go Beyond Award in the Equipment Manufacturer category, optimizes building ventilation with a unique multiplexed sensing technology and web-based analysis software to successfully enable demand-based energy saving approaches (DCV) for offices and classrooms as well as dynamic reduction of room ACH rates in labs and vivariums. The company aims to be the recognized leader in optimizing building ventilation for energy-efficient performance without sacrificing occupant comfort, health or productivity.
Aircuity’s adoption of the Labs21 approach can be seen in the significant investment the organization made in an 18-month engineering and architectural design project to develop the most sustainable office and laboratory research facility fit-out project ever completed. This project, known as the Aircuity Center for Green Building Technology, involved a large and diverse number of energy-efficient HVAC systems and design approaches. Aircuity’s goal was to create a living laboratory to educate the industry and the public about new sustainable technologies that touched almost all facets of office and laboratory environments.
A 100-drawing final design package was completed and bid, but the project has been shelved due to budget issues. However, a white and green roof was installed, and several educational presentations were made at various conferences to share lessons learned with the industry. Aircuity is very active with conferences including the Labs21 annual conference and makes educational presentations on energy efficiency at 10 to 15 different events per year.
Additionally, the organization has published two articles on dynamic control of laboratory ACHs in ALN magazine. One of these articles and numerous presentations discussed a major research study the company completed in January 2009 that documented the potential energy savings and environmental conditions in about 300 laboratory rooms over 1.5 million hours of laboratory operation. Aircuity’s chairman also testified before Congress on climate change and energy efficiency.
Aircuity’s OptiNet System provides airside energy efficiency solutions for research laboratory as well as non-lab facilities. OptiNet’s main function is to save energy and reduce a building’s carbon footprint. Aircuity also created a unique energy analysis tool that documents the amount of energy savings that the system can provide the owner. This tool also documents the environmental impacts of reducing laboratory airflows. Additionally, Aircuity uses a unique sensor swap and calibration program that refurbishes sensors and extends their life vs. discarding them.
As an example, Arizona State University has indicated that a current Aircuity project at their 2006 Laboratory of the Year, the Biodesign Institute buildings A and B, will save more than $1 million in energy annually. At the Univ. of Pennsylvania, Aircuity laboratory retrofits are the university’s top energy savings initiative.
Published in Laboratory Design Newsletter: Vol. 14, No. 11, November, 2009, p.1-7.
