Dedicated to advancing sustainable laboratories globally.
I1 System Optimization | Automation and AI
Resilience and Net Zero Risks and Opportunities for Future Laboratories
The rapid expansion of laboratory automation is reshaping life-science R&D, delivering performance gains while increasing dependence on power quality, environmental control, digital infrastructure, and systems integration. Simultaneously, laboratories must adapt to existing facilities, improve resilience, and meet net zero targets—often pursued independently, increasing delivery risk. When automation, facilities planning, and capital delivery operate in silos, misalignment between utility demands, digital requirements, and future throughput undermines resilience and decarbonization. Common failures include automation-sensitive systems unsupported by electrical infrastructure, limited outage resilience, and costly retrofits, threatening scientific output and business continuity. Automation is an opportunity to decarbonize. Human-centric laboratory environments often drive over-conditioning and excess energy use. Purpose-designed automation zones can significantly reduce ventilation, lighting, and thermal loads while consolidating equipment cooling and improving resilience. Integrated planning and governance frameworks aligning automation strategy, facility design, and capital delivery using systems engineering and lean principles are needed. A single integrated planning model and cross-functional workshops embed resilience and net zero objectives throughout the lifecycle, reducing risk and enabling repeatable delivery of automated, low-carbon laboratories.
The Year After: Advancing SMART Facility Transformation Through AI-Driven Efficiency, Safety, and Sustainability
One year after the initial introduction of SMART facility transformation strategies, organizations are beginning to see measurable impacts from integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), IoT systems, and digital twins into laboratory operations. This follow-up session builds on last year's foundation by examining how research facilities have progressed from conceptual planning to practical implementation, and how these technologies are improving safety, sustainability, and operational resilience. As laboratories continue to face workforce shortages, knowledge loss, aging infrastructure, and fragmented data environments, AI-enabled tools are proving essential for predictive maintenance, risk reduction, and resource optimization. Early adopters report reductions in unplanned outages, improved compliance readiness, enhanced asset performance, and stronger institutional knowledge retention. At the same time, the development of interoperable data frameworks and asset management culture is accelerating organizational maturity and enabling more sustainable long-term operations. This session will present lessons learned from the year after implementation: what worked, what stalled, and what strategies are emerging as best practice. Attendees will gain practical insights into how SMART facility transformation evolves over time and how AI and ML can continue to drive efficiency, safety, and sustainability across complex research environments.
Planning and Activation of Automation Labs
The planning and activation of automation labs, with a focus on renovations and/or retrofit conditions, requires an integrated approach that balances technological ambition with spatial, operational, and human considerations. This presentation outlines a structured methodology for guiding teams through that process, supported by case studies illustrating automation at varying levels of implementation. The process begins with a thorough assessment of existing conditions and program requirements. This step is essential in renovation settings, where utilities, structural limitations, adjacencies, and legacy systems shape the design. Next is analyzing the level of automation needed to meet program goals. For retrofits, this includes determining what systems can be preserved, what must be upgraded, and how automation can be integrated without disrupting adjacent functions. Optimizing involves mapping and refining workflows to align program needs with real-world constraints, while highlighting opportunities to embed sustainability, improve energy efficiency, select adaptable equipment, reduce material waste, and design for long-term operational flexibility. Finally, activation involves transitioning planning into a fully operational automation lab. Here, automation strategy, universal design, wellness, and sustainability converge into a resilient, high-performing lab environment.
I2 Sustainable Design | Teaching Lab Case Studies
Sustainable Design in Chemistry Teaching Labs: Path to 80 Percent Energy Reduction
This session explores the construction of the University of Minnesota's Undergraduate Chemistry Teaching Lab at Fraser Hall, highlighting how ambitious sustainable design strategies enabled the project to achieve greater than 80 percent energy savings, while integrating campus central utilities. Guided by Minnesota's state-funded project energy guidelines (B3/SB2030), the design team utilized energy modeling and benchmarking to exceed energy reduction targets. Advanced energy and heat recovery solutions, smart lab concepts, and right-sized ventilation systems were implemented to optimize safety, flexibility, and efficiency. Strategies such as real-time chemical inventory, airflow optimization, and indoor air quality monitoring support both sustainability and long-term operational excellence. The project consolidated fume hood-dense teaching labs into a modern, process-oriented environment and transformed Fraser Hall into a collaborative hub for students across disciplines, incorporating adaptive reuse of the original 1927 structure, selective removal of inefficient additions, and construction of a six-story lab addition with a mechanical penthouse. Lessons learned, challenges addressed, and replicable strategies will be shared to inform sustainable laboratory facility development in higher education.
Optimizing Energy Performance Based on Use: Comparing Teaching and Research Laboratories
At a glance, teaching and research laboratories appear nearly identical: similar fume hoods, flooring, ceiling diffusers, casework, and bench layouts. Yet their operational needs and usage patterns differ significantly. This presentation examines how these differences influence energy performance and how strategic design choices can improve efficiency without compromising safety or function. For many institutions, research occurs in spaces originally designed for teaching—and vice versa. Because laboratories are costly to build and operate, they are often expected to flex between instructional and research modes. Achieving meaningful energy savings requires labs to operate efficiently across this range of uses, demanding a holistic approach that extends beyond adjusting minimum air-change rates. The session will explore the balance between key planning drivers—capital cost, system complexity, resilience, flexibility, and safety—and how they relate to energy outcomes. Topics include decommissioning devices (“off switches”), chemical-use profiles, laboratory flexibility, fume hood sash height and face velocity, peak-load diversity, and the unique safety considerations required for students. Recent academic projects will illustrate how these factors play out in real-world settings.
When Less Really Is More: Avoiding Teaching Lab Bloat to Save Cost, Energy, and Carbon
Colleges and universities facing growing enrollment in laboratory courses are scrambling to provide adequate teaching lab facilities. They often push for labs that can handle “anything” to preserve flexibility. This dynamic can result in buildings that are too big or underutilized, wasting money, energy, and carbon. This session presents two case studies that illustrate just how much money, carbon, and headaches teams can save when architects, engineers, teaching staff, facilities operations staff, and health and safety staff all work together. The LSU Interdisciplinary Science Building is a 142,000-square-foot facility providing research labs, offices, and write-up space for 16 PIs and 96 graduate students, as well as 23 teaching labs ranging from chemistry and biology to physics and data visualization. Completed in January 2026, the building has a predicted energy use intensity (EUI) of 76 kBTU/sf/yr. The Frank & Maureen Wilkins Science and Engineering Center at Cape Cod Community College is a 39,000-square-foot teaching facility with labs supporting chemistry, biology, environmental science, anatomy, physiology, physics, and math instruction. Opened in September 2022, the building is all-electric and rooftop solar panels have allowed the project to achieve measured net-positive performance, recognized by I2SL in 2024 with its Lab Buildings and Projects Award in New Construction.
I3 Decarbonization | Electrification in Special Cases
From Project to Pathway: Using a Manufacturing Cleanroom Project to Launch Long-Range Campus Decarbonization Efforts
Coloplast's electrified cleanroom project and its campus decarbonization study began as separate initiatives—one to expand manufacturing capacity, the other to chart a long-term carbon reduction pathway in an urban, cold-climate setting (Minneapolis). As both advanced, they became strategically intertwined. The cleanroom project, already approved and in design, provided the rare opportunity to treat geothermal and other sustainability measures as an incremental cost layered onto a substantial capital project, rather than as a standalone investment the decarbonization study could not independently justify. This presentation examines how the project team used the cleanroom's capital framework to unlock funding for an aquifer source geothermal system and infrastructure to support expanded electrification—systems that are now built, operating, and demonstrating real-world performance. The team navigated evolving regulatory requirements, built internal confidence in novel technologies, and aligned stakeholders around a once-in-a-generation sustainability opportunity. The session will also highlight the practical experience of pursuing IRA tax credits, with the owner actively working through the filing and compliance process. Ultimately, this case shows how a well-timed capital project can become the financial and strategic catalyst for a campus-wide clean energy transformation.
Pathways to Electrified and Decarbonized Labs: Strategies Across Laboratory Typologies
Laboratory design is rapidly evolving as institutions and developers respond to growing commitments to electrification, decarbonization, and resiliency. This session will explore how different lab typologies are approaching these transitions and offer strategies, design considerations, and lessons learned for advancing low carbon, all-electric laboratory projects. Through case studies from university, institutional research, and core and shell labs, the presenters will highlight how each typology navigates its pathway toward a resilient, decarbonized future. While decarbonization and resilience are shared goals, the approaches differ. University labs, guided by campus-wide decarbonization plans, prioritize future-ready infrastructure that supports electrification as utilities evolve. Institutional research labs must balance energy efficiency with mission-critical resiliency needs, including backup systems that ensure continuous operations. Core and shell labs focus on flexibility for diverse tenants while meeting electrification mandates and planning for emergency power in dense lab markets. Attendees will gain a comparative understanding of key design drivers across these lab types and learn how targeted, context-specific decisions can support an electrified, resilient, and low-carbon laboratory future.
High Demands, Low Carbon: Solving for High-Ventilation Buildings in Cold Climates
Electrifying life science buildings in cold climates is a perfect storm of challenges: high ventilation demands, stringent internal climate controls, and ambient temperature swings. This session applies a multidisciplinary lens to explore innovative decarbonization strategies—solutions that weren't even market-viable a few years ago. Driven by rigorous energy standards in Massachusetts and ambitious decarbonization mandates of Boston and Cambridge, these frequent collaborators share real-world, cost-effective strategies that bridge the gap between sustainability goals and buildable solutions. Speakers will demonstrate the transition from traditional steam and gas to fully electrified solutions using built examples. The session will center on the application of multiple heat pump technologies, specifically comparing the performance of ground-source, air-source, and exhaust-source heat pumps. They will present technical data on why certain technologies—or specific combinations of these systems—provide the best path forward for cold-weather labs, including how to optimize energy recovery from exhaust air to boost system COP. Beyond mechanical systems, the session will share how the team also leverages health and wellness to provide value beyond rating system minimums. Attendees will learn to integrate load reduction and envelope optimization to meet net zero zoning requirements and how to approach a similar shift for other high-intensity building types across the globe.
I4 Sustainable Science | Supporting Safe and Sustainable Labs
Green Labs Efforts in Chemistry Teaching Labs at CU Boulder
Teaching laboratories provide an excellent opportunity to advance sustainability efforts due to the large number of students completing similar experiments every year and the ability to educate students on green lab best practices. This presentation discusses sustainability initiatives implemented specifically within the Chemistry Department at the University of Colorado Boulder in undergraduate teaching labs, including efforts focused on water saving, green chemistry, waste diversion, and reuse. The presentation will also discuss the benefits that teaching lab efforts can have on training the next generation of scientists and professionals on sustainability best practices. Many efforts originated from supportive instructors who identified opportunities to reduce resource use while also maintaining expected scientific standards. In many ways, progress in the CU Boulder Chemistry Department teaching labs stems from years of collaborative efforts by the CU Boulder Green Labs Program with the department to engage faculty, staff, and students in lab sustainability.
Bridging BCH GreenLabs and EHS: A Systems Approach to Chemical Reduction
Laboratory sustainability initiatives and Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) compliance programs often operate in parallel rather than in partnership. This presentation explores the role of a sustainability liaison in bridging green labs engagement efforts with EHS oversight to drive measurable chemical risk reduction and improved regulatory alignment. At Boston Children's Hospital, this collaborative model supported 29 laboratories in eliminating methylene chloride (dichloromethane, DCM) from active use while guiding two laboratories through enrollment in a Worker Chemical Protection Program (WCPP). By aligning sustainability programming with compliance metrics such as Maximum Allowable Quantities (MAQs) and chemical inventory accuracy, the initiative advanced worker protection, reduced high-hazard chemical reliance, and strengthened institutional accountability without disrupting research productivity. Attendees will gain insight into how structured collaboration between sustainability teams and EHS professionals can transform chemical management from a compliance obligation into a strategic sustainability opportunity.
Petri Dishes to Protocols in Undergraduate Labs: Embracing the Past While Cultivating a Safer, More Sustainable BSL-2 Future
This presentation reframes the undergraduate BSL-2 teaching lab as a space where foundational microbiology skills support safer, more sustainable practices. Microbiology, the study of organisms including bacteria, fungi, and viruses, forms a core requirement for many biology degrees and introduces students to essential aseptic techniques. In this project, CDC and NIH aligned safety regulations and standard protocols, and routine lab practices were analyzed to identify sources of waste in a typical teaching environment. By implementing waste stream reduction strategies and sustainable procurement practices, the model demonstrated that greener operations can be achieved without compromising experimental outcomes. These changes led to a reduction in the lab's waste stream and lowered student lab fees. This approach highlights how honoring microbiology's roots while modernizing resource use can cultivate safer, more sustainable habits for students working in undergraduate BSL-2 teaching labs.
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