Decarbonization of energy-intensive laboratories takes center stage in this episode featuring guests from the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL).

“Laboratories are one of the highest consumers of energy because of the needs around safety,” says Gordon Sharp, I2SL president. “We’re talking about wet labs, which typically deal with hazardous materials or chemicals and require large amounts of ventilation. They also have other needs such as fume hoods and exposure control devices. Their unique design and operational requirements make them very different from other types of buildings.”

The I2SL’s Labs2Zero initiative, launched in 2022, is designed to help the industry reduce energy consumption and take steps toward decarbonization. While the initiative emphasizes retrofitting existing labs, it also is expanding its focus to include new lab facilities as well.

“This is I2SL's grand plan for decarbonizing lab facilities,” says Alison Farmer, Labs2Zero program director and I2SL board secretary. “Decarbonization is a real challenge in lab facilities, but it's also a significant opportunity. These labs are consuming a lot more energy per square foot than most other types of facilities. And because they're complex, because they're typically unique, and because you have to consider safety and everything else, they often have gotten left out of some of the bigger programs dealing with building decarbonization.”

Labs2Zero resources include “score cards” in which owners can benchmark their building’s energy consumption and operational emissions compared to I2SL’s industry-wide database of energy use from more than 1,000 lab buildings. Other resources available now or in the future include embodied carbon benchmarking, Labs2Zero certification of the building energy scores, training for users of the program, and tools to help owners improve the performance of their buildings.

To help owners identify the next steps on their decarbonization journey, Labs2Zero will be launching its AIM reporting tool in the coming months. This will guide owners through evaluating appropriate measures for decarbonization for their building and ultimately create a plan and business case for improvements.

“With all of these components in place, we know that Labs2Zero is going to make a big difference in decarbonization of lab facilities,” says Farmer.

Decarbonization, energy efficiency, and sustainability in laboratories and other high-tech facilities will be examined during the I2SL’s 2024 Annual Conference, “The Gateway to Efficient Labs,” Sept. 29 to Oct. 2 in St. Louis. The conference draws architects, engineers, lab owners, and sustainability professionals from around the world.

Learn more about the I2SL, Labs2Zero, and the I2SL Annual Conference.

IMEG’s Peter Monroe joins this episode of The Future Built Smarter to share the experiences of his recent site visit to Antarctica. A former client executive and a structural engineer for 55 years, Peter made the journey from Denver to Antarctica in early 2024 to visit a project at McMurdo Station, a National Science Foundation research facility on Ross Island. McMurdo is undergoing extensive updates, and Peter’s visit was to observe the structural construction of the station’s new dormitory, one of two buildings for which IMEG has provided structural construction documents.

Established in 1955, McMurdo consists of numerous buildings and infrastructure of varying sizes and functions, many that are no longer used, others that will be replaced and consolidated into more efficient modern facilities. “I've been telling people the best way to describe it is like some of the old mining towns here in Colorado or out in California that are half abandoned,” Peter says of his first impressions of McMurdo. He also discusses the added challenges of design and construction in the Antarctic—extreme weather and permafrost, materials logistics, limited construction seasons—and key takeaways from the dormitory project. “Generally, we made good decisions,” he says, adding that there were many lessons learned to apply to the core building—the next project IMEG will design for the NSF. “The dormitory is one of their first major projects and hopefully the lessons transfer.”

While he was scheduled to be at McMurdo for six days, bad weather and airplane mechanical issues extended his stay to 12 days. That allowed him to be present for the dormitory “topping off” ceremony—the hoisting and placement of the final structural steel beam, which he signed along with the other project team partners who were present. The additional days also gave him extra time to explore and take photos and videos of the Antarctic’s native residents. “One of the days, there were two little Adelie penguins walking down the road and we were all standing there watching them. Another day the big emperor penguins came in and there was probably 50, 60, or 70 of them.”

The Antarctica trip will always stand out among Peter’s career highlights and is decidedly his farthest site visit ever—eclipsing a past visit to Saudi Arabia and easily outdistancing anything else. “For something that was in Denver, I'd leave the office in the morning, go out, and be back before lunch.”

Watch a video of Peter Monroe’s Antarctica site visit.

The final episode in a series about IMEG’s refreshed Sustainability Plan features Olivia Paxson, a structural engineering designer with the firm. Olivia is also the Sustainability Plan’s champion in IMEG’s St. Louis office, where she collaborates with her co-workers to implement the plan’s mandated and optional initiatives.

“We’ve already switched to LED lighting and that's thanks to the people we rent from,” she says. “We have a dishwasher, and we have reusable utensils, and we’re really close to a metro line as well as bus stations.” Like most IMEG offices, the St. Louis team is a tenant in its building and will be working to find more ways to collaborate with the other tenants and the owner to enact further changes.

Olivia is excited over the effort she has seen across IMEG and the potential for meaningful change. “I think this collective action is so important because one individual can only do so much,” she says. “All the offices have come together—different people of different backgrounds, and they're not all engineers. We've got such a variety of people and because we're able to come together I think we can be pushed so much further.”