Site
In Research Triangle Park, N.C., HOK’s use of indigenous landscape materials at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new 1.1 million-square-foot research campus is helping the agency conserve about 250,000 gallons of irrigation water per month.

In Atlanta, HOK re-planned Emory University’s research quadrangle to accommodate the new 325,000-square-foot Whitehead Research Building. The site had been occupied by a greenhouse and cooling tower. Redeveloping this site for the lab building increased local density and maintained existing green space.

Emory’s facilities have long been characterized by manicured lawns surrounding natural ravines. HOK applied that landscape logic to the design of the Whitehead Research Building. The design creates formally planted areas and walkways that overlook a slope planted with indigenous materials that require less maintenance and irrigation. Using native plantings is a simple, common-sense solution.

The Whitehead Research Building’s stormwater harvesting system captures water from the roof and outdoor plaza and moves it to a large detention vault beneath the plaza. The water then is filtered and reused for on-site irrigation.

Water
Also at Emory, the design team recognized that the air-conditioning system created a tremendous amount of condensate water. To recover some of this water, the Whitehead Research Building’s air-conditioning condensate is piped from air handling units and chilled water coils back into nearby cooling towers for use as makeup water.

This system conserves water and diverts an estimated 2.5 million gallons of water a year from the county’s sanitary sewer system. Those 2.5 million gallons would supply 100 people in the U.S. with their daily water needs for 125 days.

Incorporating low-flow toilets and lavatories along with low-flow or waterless urinals can significantly reduce the potable water consumption of any building. A single waterless urinal, for example, can save more than 45,000 gallons of water a year while costing less to maintain.

Cooling tower eliminators should be set to limit water carryover to a maximum of .001% of the circulating water rate. At the EPA’s campus, water-efficient cooling towers reduce chemical use and save more than four million gallons of water per year. This system will pay for itself in less than two years.

In appropriate climates, evaporative coolers can be used in place of cooling towers.

Laboratory-specific water reduction strategies include use of local water polishers in place of manifold deionized water systems. Local polishers are economical, more energy-efficient, and use less water than manifold systems. Installing aerators and flow control devices in sinks also helps reduce water consumption.

To further reduce potable water demand, rainwater can be harvested for use in toilets, irrigation, mop sinks, or cooling towers. The rainwater collection system at the Nidus Center in St. Louis recycles more than 26,000 gallons of water between May and September.

Indoor Environment
Indoor environmental quality should be optimized for the health, well-being, and effectiveness of the people who occupy buildings. As with other building types, clean air, visual access to the exterior, daylight, and good acoustic and temperature control all are essential elements.

Both the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center and the Sigma-Aldrich Life Sciences and High Technology Building in St. Louis use their superior indoor environmental quality standards to attract potential employees and limit attrition and absences. Both buildings offer abundant daylighting, provide most employees with views to the outside, and use low-emitting materials.

The Danforth Center uses displacement ventilation to reduce energy use while increasing the quality of indoor air in public spaces. This also greatly decreases overall operational costs.

For the design of the EPA’s campus, materials went through stringent emissions testing to satisfy indoor air quality requirements. HOK’s design team worked hand in hand with the same EPA researchers who have helped develop the United States’ groundbreaking emissions standards to develop an integrated IAQ management plan for the facility’s construction, operations, and maintenance. This IAQ construction management plan has become a nationally recognized standard.

Materials
Lab designers can choose from a variety materials that are environmentally friendly throughout their life cycle. When used appropriately, their aesthetics and durability can add great value.

Lab materials need to be especially tough and flexible. In chemistry research labs, for example, the floors and countertops absorb a tremendous amount of abuse.

Designers should examine these products for their environmental and financial life cycle costs. Life cycle costing considers the sum of the material, installation, maintenance, and eventual disposal/reuse costs divided across the product’s usable life. Carefully analyzing each product to determine its appropriateness in specific situations will help prevent the eventual need to remove and replace a product before the end of its usable life.

One of the green materials HOK specifies is Trespa’s Athlon, which is made of phenoleic resin and Kraft paper with recycled wood fiber. "The resin and the Kraft paper are renewable," explains Senior HOK Lab Designer Jeff Strohmeyer. "It is super dimensionally stable and virtually indestructible, despite being about two-thirds the weight of epoxy resin."

At the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana incubator lab, Athlon is being used as an overhead service carrier panel to hide the piping on the interior and on the lab counters. It also can be used for casework. HOK has specified Meteon, another Trespa product, for the exterior cladding.

Using cast-in-place concrete structures for lab buildings, or even just steel frames with concrete, helps prepare a facility for night flushing. “All that equipment generates an enormous amount of heat,” says Bill Odell, HOK’s director of science + technology (North Central Region) and sustainable design principal. “So we keep the fans churning and move in the cooler air in night. We cool down the structure so it takes longer the next morning for the building to heat up again.” Other types of thermal mass like water, plaster, and masonry can also aid in this process.

In addition to specifying appropriate and environmentally preferable materials, HOK plans labs for maximum flexibility. This minimizes waste, energy use, and other expenditures associated with major renovation projects.

Research incubators such the Nidus Center or the University of Illinois lab make up for a relatively high churn rate by incorporating standardized modular systems for casework, partitions, and laboratory services. These design decisions will soften the impact of future remodels.

This kind of flexibility isn’t limited to incubators. “We’re designing every lab to accommodate rapid change,” Odell says. “We’re putting equipment on wheels and providing plug-and-play services with quick disconnects. We’re designing open, modular lab and lab office plans. There is very little fixed equipment.” While adding this flexibility can cost more upfront, it vastly extends the lab’s useful life.

Other ideas for conserving resources in labs include:

• Specify casework from a vendor located near the project site.
  
• Use steel casework with a powder-coat finish.
  
• Ask vendors to minimize packaging or take back packaging for reuse.
  
• Request certified lumber and casework made from reclaimed wood.
  
• Specify products from manufacturers who have a take-back or product reclamation program.
  
• Consider using fewer materials. Sealed concrete, for example, can serve as the finished floor.
• Acoustic metal decking with painted structure and other systems can take the place of acoustic ceiling tile.