WHAT IS A SUSTAINABLE LABORATORY

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WHAT IS A SUSTAINABLE LABORATORY?

• Professor Peter James, Co-Director
• Higher Education Environmental Performance
  Improvement ( HEEPI)
• www.heepi.org.uk www.labs21.org.uk

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• Labs embody the spirit, culture, and economy of
  our agewhat the cathedral was to the 14th
  century and the office building was to the 20th
  century, the laboratory is to the 21st century
• Dan Prowler

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HEEPI LABS21

• Higher Education Environmental Performance
  Improvement (www.heepi.org.uk)- mainly financed
  by HEFCE- awards events- benchmarking- case
  studies and guidance
• Partnership with the US Labs21 initiative-
  www.labs21.org.uk
• Greenbuild initiative- Sustainable
  laboratories- BREEAM for Higher Education (incl
  labs)

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SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
Economically viable
Environmentally sound
Socially responsible
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AN ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE LABORATORY

• Green building- location materials etc.
• Energy efficient- fabric HVAC process cooling
• Water efficient
• Low waste
• Low carbon (transport)
• Space efficient flexible

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THE S-LAB
Successful
Sustainable
Safe
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SUSTAINABLE SYNERGIES

• Health and safety- better understanding can
  create greater safety and reduce capital and
  operating costs
• Working conditions- high daylighting,
  sustainable materials, maximum natural
  ventilation etc create more attractive and
  productive environments
• Flexibility- reuse of equipment and space cuts
  waste and avoids the impacts of replacements
• Learning- labs create tomorrows scientists and
  technologists, who must understand sustainability
  

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GROWING PRESSURES

• Environmental crisis
• High utilities costs
• Tightening regulation- Command and control
  e.g. Building Regs- Incentive based e.g. Waste
  Levy
• Stretching government targets- 80 carbon
  reduction 1990-2050- zero carbon buildings
  (Welsh labs by 2012)
• Stakeholder pressures

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Building Regulations
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OTHER LAB DRIVERS

• EN 14175 new fume cupboard standard
• Ends the long-established tradition that 0.5ms-1
  is the correct/safe face velocity
• Risk assessment based- a comprehensive set of
  test methods
• New opportunities, e.g. VAV, Low Flow
• REACH- end of some common lab chemicals?

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ENERGY PROFILE- TYPICAL BUILDING/OLD LAB
Heat
Plug
Cool
Light
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ENERGY PROFILE- NEW LAB
Heat
Plug
Ventilation
Cool
Light

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LAB ENERGY EFFICIENCY (kwh per square meter)
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LAB ENERGY COSTS- 2006 prices, hypothetical
7000m2
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WHY SO HIGH?

• Health and safety concerns/reqts
• More, and often more energy intensive, equipment
• Increasing thermal loads from more process and
  research equipment
• Higher comfort requirements
• Extended occupancy

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UNECESSARILY HIGH?

• Lack of understanding about key issues amongst
  designers and contractors
• Non-integration of building services
• Crude approaches to safety- more air multiplied
  safety margins
• Absence of effective whole-life costing-
  capital/revenue disconnects
• Lack of involvement of facilities staff and
  building users in design
• Wrong assumptions acceptance of nameplate
  data limited use profiling

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ENERGY ACTIONS - DESIGN

• Understanding the system
• Right sizing
• Smooth load following
• Low pressure drop design
• Effective control and feedback
• Flexibility
• Ease of maintenance/operation

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DESIGN INTEGRATION

• minimal increases in upfront costs of about 2
  to support green design would, on average, result
  in life cycle savings of 20 of total
  construction costs - more than ten times the
  initial investment- The Costs and Financial
  Benefits of Green Buildings, A Report to
  Californias Sustainable Building Task Force

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ENERGY ACTIONS - OPERATION

• Auditing and metering
• Budgetary responsibility
• Purchasing low power devices- A fridges Energy
  Star 4/5 computers
• Switching equipment off/down- automatically/manua
  lly
• Awareness campaigns

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RIGHT SIZING

• Provisioning as required
• Avoiding design to unlikely/avoidable peak
  conditions- metering of current activities
• Taking full account of diversity
• Grouping/compressing high energy loads
• Sharing facilities or services

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SMOOTH LOAD FOLLOWING

• Currently loose relationship between load and
  useful work- air blows irrespective of need-
  cooling occurs irrespective of heat
• Effective feedback and control
• Variable capacity devices (fans, servers etc)
• Modularity of plant

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MODULAR LAB PLANT
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FLEXIBILITY

• Operational flexibility
• Capital flexibility
• Over-investing in utility infrastructure-
  under-investing in current provision- extending
  useful life
• Equipment modules- laboratory pods- portable
  fume cupboards

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WATER ACTIONS

• Auditing and metering
• Budgetary responsibility
• Purchasing low use devices
• Water controls
• Load following- variable speed pumps- liquid
  pressure amplification pumps
• Awareness campaigns

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WASTE ACTIONS

• Plan for materials/waste movement and storage
• Auditing
• Effective chemicals management
• Awareness campaigns