To support expanded infectious disease testing, modernized biosafety standards, and long-term public health resilience, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's state public health laboratory building completed a major expansion and modernization. The project upgraded BSL-3 containment spaces, strengthened critical mechanical infrastructure, and converted significant warehouse area into fully functional laboratory space. This session presents the mechanical systems strategy and performance verification approach used to meet the state's program goals and applicable biosafety guidance while balancing safety, reliability, maintainability, and energy performance. From the design engineer and commissioning agent perspectives, speakers will discuss key basis-of-design decisions; airflow and pressure relationship concepts; redundancy and control intent; and the integration of HVAC, controls, and monitoring/alarm requirements critical to containment. They will also outline the verification strategy, acceptance criteria, and functional test scenarios used to validate directional airflow and room pressurization stability from abnormal conditions.

Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, enforce some of the nation's most aggressive building decarbonization mandates, including BERDO and BEUDO pathways to net zero by 2050. For many laboratory buildings, thermal energy accounts for roughly half of operational emissions. Full-building electrification is technically complex, capital-intensive, and often constrained by grid capacity. In this context, “green steam” generated by large electric boilers and heat pumps at central plants has emerged as a pragmatic alternative. This session examines the implications of decarbonizing labs through electrified district steam. We will discuss how centralized electrification can leverage power rates, load aggregation, and thermal storage to reduce emissions. In dense research campuses where uptime, sterilization, and humidification are mission-critical, district steam can preserve operational continuity while lowering on-site risk. The drawbacks are also important, as electric boilers may shift emissions upstream. Electricity costs remain significantly higher than natural gas on a raw energy basis, and reliance on renewable energy credits raises concerns about additionality and durability. Attendees will gain a balanced framework for evaluating green steam as a transitional strategy versus full electrification. For lab owners navigating carbon caps today, it may function as a pragmatic—if imperfect—bridge. The session will be structured as a discussion between two experts.

As laboratory owners and facility staff continue to focus on sustainability and resilience, design consultants are looking beyond on-site building electrification to find new decarbonization strategies. One promising solution is thermal energy networks, which manage heating and cooling by distributing and sharing thermal energy between buildings. These networks are especially valuable in laboratory settings, where energy use is much higher than in other types of buildings. They make it possible to recover heat from one building and use it in another, allow for geoexchange technologies, and enhance system reliability by keeping fossil-fuel equipment for backup. The session will explore how laboratories can use thermal energy networks to achieve decarbonization without compromising performance. Participants will learn about capturing and reusing waste heat to reduce dependence on fossil fuels and central utility systems. The presentation will feature case studies and address specific challenges associated with applying them in labs. Attendees will gain insight into how early collaboration among engineers, architects, and owners improves the design and decision-making process for effective thermal energy networks.