Our February Research Facility Shared Practice meeting was a review of the Smart Labs Toolkit, a resource developed by the U.S. Department of Energy Federal Energy Management Program.
Decarbonization is critical to minimizing the impact of facility operations on climate change. As lab facilities produce three to five times the carbon emissions of a typical office building, labs present as a prime candidate for energy efficiency, water reduction, and carbon reduction opportunities. To achieve this, lab owners and facility managers can develop a lab decarbonization plan using the Smart Labs Toolkit process of Plan, Assess, Optimize, and Manage. This free toolkit was developed for international use, to guide laboratory stakeholders through a straight-forward, holistic approach to achieve dynamic, high-performance laboratories. A Smart Labs program employs a combination of physical, administrative, and management techniques to assess, optimize, and manage high performance laboratories.
The overview was provided by members of the Building Technologies & Science Center at NREL:
- Rachel L. Romero, PE, Energy Engineer,
- Otto Van Geet, Principal Engineer, and
- Sarah Turner, Graduate Intern.
The presentation includes an introduction to the Laboratory Ventilation Risk Assessment (LVRA), a systematic process for identifying risk due to airborne hazards to inform the operation of dynamic ventilation that optimizes safety and efficiency. Smarter, safer ventilation strategies are needed to successfully manage carbon emissions from critical laboratory environments.
Fill out the short form below to get an email with a link to the recording and a copy of the presentation.