Contacts
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Sustainable Design
"Sustainability is basically a concept about the interconnectedness of the environment, the economy, and social equity. It is a journey - a path forward - through which we demonstrate responsibility for our future legacy. It is a vision — an aspiration — for a better life for our children and our children's children." —LANL Sustainable Design Guide, Dec 2002
Sustainable design seeks to reduce negative impacts on the environment, and the health and comfort of building occupants, thereby improving building performance. The basic objectives of sustainability are to reduce consumption of non-renewable resources, minimize waste, and create healthy, productive environments.
Principles
Sustainable Design Principles
Utilizing a sustainable design philosophy encourages decisions at each phase of the design process that will reduce negative impacts on the environment and the health of the occupants, without compromising the bottomline.
Sustainable design principles include the ability to:
- optimize site potential
- minimize non-renewable energy consumption
- use environmentally preferable products
- protect and conserve water
- enhance indoor environmental quality
- optimize operational and maintenance practices
Committment
LANL's Committment to Sustainable Design
The Laboratory is committed to a holistic approach to sustainable design where the definition of sustainable design is expanded to include safety, security, building flexibility, productivity improvements, and waste minimization opportunities of the operations going into a new facility as well as the materials used to construct the facility. Under this definition, the key objectives are:
- enhance worker safety
- enhance execution of the mission
- increase flexibility to adapt to changing missions
- low maintenance costs
- reduced mission, environmental, and safety vulnerabilities
- efficient resource and raw material use
- increased worker quality-of-life and productivity
- decrease security risks
- sustainable for at least 50 years
Benefits
Benefits of Sustainable Design
The Laboratory is pursuing sustainable design because the Laboratory is committed to environmental, mission, and business excellence. Sustainable design is proven to help organizations achieve these three areas of excellence. The core benefits of sustainable design are:
- Mission and Economic Benefit
- Enhanced performance and productivity
- Improved the bottom line
- Minimized strain on existing Laboratory infrastructure
- Health and Safety Benefits
- Enhanced employee comfort, health, and safety
- Lab-wide Community Benefits
- Improved public perception and quality of life
- Environmental Benefits
- Reduced the impacts of natural resource consumption
Progress
LANL's Sustainable Design Progress
Since FY 2003, in partnership with DOE-LA-AO, IFC and divisions through the Laboratory (RRES, PM, FWO, DX, HSR, NMT, D, S, and C), the Laboratory has implemented several tasks to integrate sustainable design and high performance concepts into new facilities. Below is a list of what has been completed to date.
- LANL designed the Sustainable Design Guidance Document and hosted the Sustainable Design Workshop in partnership with IFC, NREL, PM, & RRES
- Hosted two Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Workshops to introduce LEED concepts to divisions and architect firms (The LEED Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings (http://www.usgbc.org/LEED/LEED_main.asp).)
- Sustainable design upgrades to LANL?s Engineering Standards
- Developed Tools to Incorporate Sustainable Design Elements into the Future DX-2 High Explosive Characterization Facility
- A floor plan used as a tool to gather input from the building users (scientists, technicians, and maintenance employees),
- A waste elimination case study used to establish a business case for sustainable design (showed cost savings and increased worker productivity),
- A pollution prevention opportunity assessment used to identify key DX-2 mission operations that generate waste and methods to eliminate the waste,
- High performance and sustainable design concepts from the Green Building Council Leadership Energy and sites. This information was used to help find solutions to operations, security, safety, environment, productivity, and maintenance issues.
- The information from the tools and resources listed above was incorporated into a Risk Assessment Database. The Risk Assessment Database was used to develop the High Performance Functional and Operating Requirements (F&ORs). The Database included security, safety, health, environment, and intelligent workspace issues (design options used to improve productivity).
- Four LEED design assessments currently underway
- Design Charette with the Rad Liquid Waste Treatment Facility to help integrate pollution prevention and sustainable design concepts into the new facility
- Established a High-Performance Group with Sandia National Lab to share knowledge about our Sustainable Design Programs
Resources
Sustainable Design Resources
- 2004 DOE/EH Pollution Prevention Conference: May 20, 2004 Sustainable Design Session Lead by Jack Mizner, SNL covered technical presentations addressing sustainable design activities throughout the DOE Site.
- Armstrong: product page for recycled content ceilings
- Calibre Plastics: product page for glassware washing machines
- Designing a High Performance Laboratory at the High Explosive Characterization (HEC) Facility (LA-UR-04-6775)
- EcoSmart Concrete: product page for recycled content concrete
- Fata Automation: this site shows automated storage and retrieval options - more for commercial scale
- FWO Design Engineering and Construction Services (DECS): FWO-DECS provides institutional engineering leadership and technical direction for the Laboratory’s nuclear and non-nuclear facilities. This Office ensures that the engineering program and LANL Engineering Standards comply with the Work Smart Standards as listed in Appendix G of the UC/DOE contract and safety policies of the Department of Energy are met cost effectively.
- Greening Project Budgets: Advice from the Trenches. US Green Building Council's Second Annual Membership Summit. September 22-25, 1999. Wintergreen, Virginia
- The HOK Guidebook to Sustainable Design by Sandra Mendler and William Odell. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York. 2000
- INEEL: references to projects including automation and robotics
- Labs for the 21st Century: Labs21 is a voluntary program dedicated to improving the environmental performance of U.S. laboratories.
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: article on the new energy efficient fume hoods
- Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System: The LEED Green Building Rating System is a voluntary, consensus-based national standard for developing high-performance, sustainable buildings. Members of the U.S. Green Building Council representing all segments of the building industry developed LEED and continue to contribute to its evolution.
- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Reference Package for New Construction and Major Renovations (LEED-NC) Version 2.1. Second Edition, May 2003. Green Building Council, Washing, DC
- Problem Seeking: An Architectural Programming Primer by William Pena and Steven Parshall. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York. 2000
- Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) Sustainable Design Program: Provides information about Sandia National Laboratories Sustainable Design and Pollution Prevention Program.
- Sirus Microtech: product page for automated storage/retrieval system for chemicals
- Site + Architectural Design Principles. January 2002, Los Alamos National Laboratory, LA-UR 01-5383
- Stanford: Stanford Compatible Storage Group Chemical Classification System, quick reference for chemical storage groups
- Sustainable Design Efforts at Los Alamos National Laboratory – Planning for the High Explosive Characterization (HEC) Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, LA-UR-03-4378
- Sustainable Design Guide (LANL only): This document provides guidance on designing energy-efficient buildings at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) as well as an overview covering ways that LANL can make a difference in the future sustainability.
- Tradeline: Tradeline Inc. provides leading-edge resources for facilities planning and management through its conferences, Web site, and publications.
- Waste Minimization or Elimination through Sustainable Building Design - The High Explosives Characterization Laboratory Building: An NNSA Waste Stream Elimination Case Study, Los Alamos National Laboratory, LA-UR-03-2317
Sources
Sustainable Design Sources
- Sustainable Design Definition: Sustainable Design. 3 Aug. 2004. U.S. General Services Administration. 9 Aug. 2004
- Quote about Sustainability: Farrar-Nagy, Sara; Hayter, Sheila J.; Larson, Amber; Torcellini, Paul A.; Van Geet, Otto. LANL Sustainable Design Guide. Dec. 2002. pg. 4
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