Chelmsford, Massachusetts

This facility features the following green attributes:
LEED 1.0 Gold
Green Power
Water Management Plan

New England Regional Laboratory (NERL)

Total Facility Area: 70,440 gross square feet (GSF)
Estimated Personnel: 82 persons
Energy Consumption: 17,373,775,000 Btu per year
Btu per GSF per Year: 246,646
Total Water Consumption: 1,166,400 gallons per year
Gallons per GSF per Year: 17

All energy and water data are reported as of FY 2007.

Description

Construction started on the Chelmsford laboratory in the spring of 2000. The new laboratory was accepted by GSA in September 2001 and began operations in October 2001. The facility houses Region 1 and the Office of Environmental Measurement and Evaluation, and conducts chemical and biological laboratory analysis of environmental samples.

Unique Environmental Features

Energy Conservation

Plans are currently underway for a Controls Master Plan and a Building Management Systems review for the Chelmsford laboratory. As of March 2007, the facility managers were conducting a comprehensive evaluation of the facility's building automation system. EPA will use the results of this review to assess the need for upgrades and make recommendations to further maximize efficiency and reduce energy use.
The laboratory features variable air volume heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning and fume hoods, an active and passive solar design (in the form of solar energy-producing window awnings), and extensive recycled material content. In fact, the use of recycled and recovered materials for construction has not only saved considerable physical resources, but also financial resources for a cost savings of over $10,000.

Green Power

In August 2005, EPA renewed its commitment to supporting green power by entering into a new, three-year contract with Select Energy (procured by the Defense Energy Support Center ) to purchase 3 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of green power annually for its Chelmsford, Massachusetts, laboratory in the form of renewable energy certificates (RECs). This contract supports the generation of renewable energy from wind farms in South Dakota, North Dakota, and Wyoming, and will offset 100 percent of the electricity consumption at NERL.
For three years (from 2001 through 2004) EPA obtained RECs for 100 percent of the Chelmsford laboratory's electricity consumption. This procurement supported the generation of green power at Green Mountain Utility's Searsburg wind farm in Vermont and a wind power source in New York.

Green Building

In April 2003, the New England Regional Laboratory received Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED^®) 1.0 Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. The LEED rating system is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings.

Water Conservation

In FY 2003, two waterless urinals were installed, reducing the use of potable water for sewage conveyance by more than 22 percent.
The laboratory was one of the first EPA facilities to develop a formal water management plan (PDF) (20 pp, 930K, About PDF), which was implemented in FY 2003.

Waste Reduction and Recycling

In June 2002, NERL received the 2002 White House Closing the Circle Award for its recycling efforts and integrated sustainable design.
To complement the affirmative procurement and reuse efforts of the NERL construction project, a massive on-site recycling effort was initiated. This recycling effort included the provision of bins for construction and demolition debris (e.g., concrete, brick, asphalt), metals (e.g., metal studs, duct-work, pipe), cardboard (e.g., boxes, packing materials), clean wood (e.g., scrap wood, pallets, packing materials), plastics (e.g., packing materials, bottles, food packaging), glass, gypsum drywall, carpet, rigid foam insulation, and general refuse. In particular, all soil and gravel within the limit of work was stockpiled and graded for later reuse as fill or loam. Blasted rock out-croppings were crushed with an on-site processing plant, avoiding an estimated 785 dump truck loads.
The combined result of recycling efforts was that more than 50 percent of the solid waste generated from construction was diverted from the landfill and recycled.

Green Purchasing

Extensive use of recycled content and recovered materials during construction not only saved considerable physical resources, but also financial resources for a cost savings of over $10,000.

For More Information

Visit NERL's Green Building Design Page.

Contacts

Bob Beane, Facilities Team
Phone: (781) 860-4350
New England Regional Laboratory
11 Technology Drive
Chelmsford, MA 01863-2431

Web site: www.epa.gov/ne/lab/index.html