Dedicated to advancing sustainable laboratories globally.
D1 System Optimization | Ventilation Standards and Strategies
Latest and Greatest News in Laboratory HVAC!
This session will showcase the latest industry trends, research, and hot topics in laboratory HVAC. The presenters are active members of ASHRAE Technical Committee 9.10 on Laboratory Systems. The session will introduce ASHRAE publications and current research related to laboratory HVAC design and discuss the implications. The committee has sponsored research on cross-contamination of energy recovery wheels and ventilation effectiveness in laboratories. There are also upcoming changes to ASHRAE Guideline 36 and ASHRAE Standard 90.1 that may have a profound impact on laboratory HVAC design. Updates on Standard 110, the Classification of Laboratory Ventilation Design Levels, the ASHRAE Laboratory Design Guide, and the ASHRAE Handbook chapter on laboratories will also be discussed.
The Fallacy of 3,000: Is This Rule of Thumb Costing You Energy or Increasing Your Health Risks?
Rules of thumb can provide design guidance; however, there are often caveats associated with their use. Setting a minimum laboratory exhaust velocity to 3,000 fpm is no exception. This rule of thumb makes assumptions on proper stack and air intake placement to avoid adverse re-entrainment of toxic exhaust. For smaller fan systems or if the stack is not designed properly, this rule of thumb can result in an unacceptable risk of exceeding health and/or odor limits of nearby air intakes. For larger fan systems, applying this rule of thumb can limit potential energy savings when operating under VAV control. This presentation will review the benefits of applying performance-based design using dispersion modeling for laboratory exhaust systems to minimize risk and maximize energy efficiency.
Next-Generation Lab Environments
Laboratory buildings are among the most unpredictable, energy-intensive, and risk-sensitive building types in the world. The challenge is no longer flexibility alone—it is delivering lab environments that are readily adaptable, with measurable performance and uncompromising safety while maintaining long-term resilience. This session reframes next-generation lab design around quantifiable outcomes: easily adaptable labs, energy performance, air change optimization, contaminant clearance effectiveness, occupant comfort, infrastructure robustness, and operational continuity. We will examine how modular planning strategies, right-sized ventilation systems, smart controls, and performance-based engineering approaches can simultaneously enhance safety and reduce energy intensity. Through a comparative analysis of a fully operational pilot facility and a conventional laboratory baseline, we will present data on versatility, system efficiency, contaminant clearing performance, and user comfort. Attendees will gain insight into how early design decisions—programming assumptions, risk classification, infrastructure zoning, and control strategies—directly influence life-cycle safety, sustainability, and operating cost outcomes. Participants will leave with practical strategies to design laboratories that are adaptable by intent, safe by performance, and optimized for long-term operational excellence.
D2 Sustainable Design | Specifying Sustainable Materials
The LEED v5 Lab: Finishes, Casework, and Healthy Materials
The updates for LEED v5 represent a significant development in sustainable design. LEED v5 credits have been individually updated to remain aspirational and to increase administration efficiency. In particular, the Building Product Selection and Procurement credit has holistically combined several LEED v4 materials credits into a single comprehensive approach. In addition, they have updated the values associated with material selection around the following criteria: climate health, human health, ecosystem health, social health and equity, and circular economy. While these changes may seem overwhelming, this presentation posits that they are an opportunity for owners, facility managers, and designers when developing new lab facilities. This new value-driven focus helps projects align material selections with the values of the facility owner. This presentation will help orient attendees around the "why" for these five sustainability criteria, explaining how they were developed and the standards and testing agencies associated with each criterion. Speakers will address the material selection opportunities unique to the lab environment, addressing the specification and procurement requirements specific to casework and countertops, as well as flooring, ceiling, and wall assemblies. With an initial understanding of these strategies, they will help attendees develop a best practices strategy to inform future projects and exceed leading-edge LEED requirements.
The Ripple Effect: How Small Material Decisions Shape Laboratory Sustainability
Explore how sustainable material choices move from aspiration to implementation through a series of real-world vignettes drawn from complex laboratory projects utilizing The Switch List, among other resources. Laboratory environments are among the most resource-intensive building types, requiring high air change rates, stringent safety standards, enhanced chemical resistance, and durable materials capable of withstanding aggressive cleaning protocols. Within these constraints, material and equipment selection becomes both a challenge and an opportunity. Through focused project stories, this presentation highlights decision-making moments where sustainability goals intersected with performance, code compliance, budget, and user expectations. Rather than treating sustainability as a checklist, this session reframes it as a series of intentional choices made at pivotal project moments by redefining the lens through which we evaluate materials. Participants will leave with replicable strategies, lessons learned, and a renewed perspective on how incremental material decisions collectively shape the long-term environmental footprint of laboratory facilities.
Turning Red List Avoidance Goals Into Reality: A Case Study
Red List avoidance is emerging as a sustainability priority for research projects, but turning this aspiration into reality means balancing performance criteria, limited product availability, and the complexities of lab construction. This session features a candid case study from the Bakar Research and Academic Building, an interdisciplinary facility at University of California San Francisco's (UCSF's) Mission Bay campus. The team complemented prescriptive criteria documentation requirements with Red List avoidance requirements from concept through completion. Starting with a broadly defined, owner-driven Red List avoidance objective, the design-build team partnered with UCSF to clarify goals, set actionable criteria, and embed them into project specifications. Using risk and opportunity analysis, they developed a structured workflow and maintained close coordination with trade partners and manufacturers throughout every stage of the project, ultimately reviewing hundreds of products while navigating material performance and supply chain constraints. Presenters will share both successes and setbacks, including influencing manufacturers to launch Declare-labeled phenolic lab benchtops, and learning from a late-stage switch when a Red List-compliant steel primer was unable to meet project needs. Attendees will gain practical, transferable lessons on how to move Red List avoidance from policy to practice, turning healthy materials into a reality in laboratory environments.
D3 Decarbonization | Strategic Approaches to Decarbonization
Efficiency-First Strategies for High-Impact Laboratory Decarbonization
An efficiency-first airflow optimization program represents one of the most effective and immediately actionable strategies for reducing energy use and emissions in laboratory buildings. Recent life science and university case studies demonstrate that deep reductions in energy consumption and Scope 1 emissions can be achieved by right-sizing ventilation based on actual risk and operational need. These case studies further show that every dollar invested in airflow optimization can generate up to a five-fold return by reducing the scale, cost, and complexity of future decarbonization measures within five years. This presentation will share measured results from operating laboratories, detailing the impact of airflow optimization on energy use intensity, emissions, and long-term decarbonization readiness. In addition to energy and carbon outcomes, the session will explore ancillary benefits of an efficiency-first approach, including improved indoor air quality, enhanced safety for researchers, and greater operational resilience for owners.
Decarbonization in Labs: Overlooked Yet Critical MEP Considerations
Deep decarbonization of lab buildings has historically focused on reducing operational energy, given their high ventilation rates and process loads. While this work remains critical, emerging research and project data demonstrate that the embodied carbon associated with MEP systems represents a significant and often under-accounted portion of a lab's total carbon footprint. With LEED v5 and the 2030 Commitment, decarbonization is now a core design priority. Using case studies from new construction and interior fit-out projects, this session takes a deep dive into decarbonization by examining how MEP systems can be a significant yet underrecognized contributor to a project's total embodied carbon. It also explores how these impacts surprisingly relate to operational energy use and electrification. By reframing MEP systems as a critical driver of whole-building carbon—rather than solely an operational energy concern—this work offers practical approaches for integrating carbon accounting into laboratory planning, design, and procurement. Participants will learn how early collaboration and coordination among architects, engineers, and owners can influence system selection, right-sizing, material specifications, and distribution strategies to reduce both embodied and operational impacts and improve outcomes. The session will provide data-informed strategies and actionable insights that support low-carbon lab projects without sacrificing performance and flexibility.
Renovate, Innovate, Sustain: A Practical Framework for Sustainability in Lab Renovation Projects
Lab buildings are among the most energy-intensive building types, yet renovation projects represent one of the greatest and most underutilized opportunities to advance meaningful sustainability outcomes. This roundtable brings together construction and design professionals with extensive experience in lab renovation, sustainability, and decision-making to share a practical, layered framework for embedding sustainability into your next interior lab renovation project. This session challenges attendees to reframe sustainable design as a strategic alignment process, one that begins with a rigorous understanding of existing conditions and infrastructure, engages landlords and stakeholders early, and translates company-specific ESG goals into prioritized, actionable design and construction decisions. Through real project examples, presenters will explore how decisions around space planning, partition types, fume hood density, HVAC controls, finish materials, and construction practices each carry measurable sustainability implications. Attendees will gain exposure to lean decision-making tools that help teams evaluate trade-offs transparently between first cost, schedule, and scientific performance of the space. The session emphasizes the most sustainable renovation is one that aligns infrastructure, science, and business strategy and sets the company up for long-term flexibility and performance.
D4 Sustainable Science | Green Labs Lessons Learned
Lessons From the Green Laboratory Certification Program at the University of Florida
The University of Florida Division of Environmental Health & Safety has developed a Green Laboratory Certification (GLC) program to encourage, promote, and recognize sustainable behaviors in research labs across campus. GLC implementation involved the development of various components of the program: creation of a website and educational materials for disseminating sustainability guidance and program information. A rubric was established for objectively rating laboratories that have made meaningful commitments to sustainability. Labs achieving acclaimed ratings receive a posted ranking on the lab notice board along with other means of recognition. Presenters will provide an overview of the implementation of a green lab certification program for labs to reinforce conscientious behaviors in research laboratories, promote the acquisition of energy-efficient lab equipment, and encourage green laboratory design. This presentation also aims to illuminate the multifaceted advantages of energy-efficient, ultra-low-temperature freezers, with a special focus on the pivotal role played by all relevant parties and various resources fostering environmental consciousness within the scientific community.
Started From the Bottom, Now We're Here: Building a Green Labs Program
Green Labs programs allow institutions to save money, reduce energy consumption, and meet climate sustainability goals. However, the financial support for Green Labs programs does not always reflect the program's value. With a limited budget (and bandwidth), Green Labs employees are often tasked with identifying ways to incentivize participation in green labs, lower the carbon footprint of labs, and gather metrics. At the University of Pennsylvania, there are over 750 laboratories and one full-time employee. Despite limited resources, the Green Labs Program at Penn has saved over $11,000 and diverted 580 pounds of waste through lab supply swaps, more than doubled lab participation in the International Freezer Challenge, and saved over $281,853 with the university's first Shut the Sash competition. These savings were achieved through collaboration (with EHS, local schools, and lab vendors) and learning how to DIY tasks such as creating a mascot, making outreach materials, and event planning. This presentation will cover how to use existing, low-cost resources to build a community and make an impact. Topics include making your presence known, building relationships, and creative ways to incentivize lab participation. This presentation will also include time for audience participation to share their own experiences and ideas.
Animal Bedding Composting Discussion
The presentation will feature representatives from University of Virginia, JHU, and University of Colorado Boulder who have worked to implement composting of animal bedding from research animals. Presenters will discuss the considerations, processes, and lessons learned for animal bedding composting at research institutions. A brief introduction will highlight the multi-year efforts of the I2SL Lab Material Management Working Group (formerly Lab Waste Landfill Diversion Working Group) in compiling an overview of animal bedding composting.
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