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Contacts

  • Environmental Communication & Public Involvement
    P.O. Box 1663
    MS J591
    Los Alamos, NM 87545
    Phone: 505-667-0216
    FAX: 505-665-1812
    envoutreach@lanl.gov

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

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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