Dedicated to advancing sustainable laboratories globally.
2024 I2SL Sustainable Laboratory Award
Winners
The I2SL Sustainable Laboratory Awards Program recognizes outstanding projects, programs, and people exhibiting innovative and exemplary achievements in lab sustainability, energy efficiency, decarbonization, and waste reduction. There are three distinct categories of recognition: Lab Buildings and Projects Award, Lab Programs and Initiatives Award, and Phil Wirdzek Leadership Award.
The competition recognizes laboratory design innovation and leadership by leveraging I2SL’s reputation as the leading organization for sustainable, safe, and efficient laboratories. An I2SL Sustainable Laboratory Award provides global recognition and credibility to awardees. Award winners are publicized internationally through the I2SL Annual Conference, website, webinars, and communications and social media channels.
I2SL recognized 11 organizations and two individuals at the 2024 Annual Conference in St. Louis, Missouri, October 1, 2024. Read more about the accomplishments of each award winner below and join the virtual International Sustainable Laboratory Award Winners Showcase on November 13 from 11:00 a.m. to 12 p.m. Eastern. You’ll learn more about initiatives of two European programs, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory and the Green Labs Netherlands Foundation, as well as the Phil Wirdzek Emerging Leader award winner, Andrew King of AstraZeneca. Register for the showcase today!
Award Ceremony Photo Gallery (October 2, 2024)
Lab Buildings and Projects Awards
New Construction
Cape Cod Community College, Frank & Maureen Wilkens Science & Engineering Center
Vanderweil Engineers, Payette Associates
Frank & Maureen Wilkens Science & Engineering Center, Cape Cod Community College
Cape Cod Community College opened the Frank & Maureen Wilkens Science & Engineering Center in September 2022 in Barnstable, Massachusetts. Supported by Vanderweil Engineers and Payette Associates, the 38,500-square-foot building is home to the college’s Engineering Department and facilitates much of the college’s science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) learning. The Wilkens Center achieved LEED® Gold and is an all-electric, net-positive energy facility with wet and dry lab spaces, as well as communal space for collaboration. The building was designed to demonstrate sustainable design and mechanical systems to students, through a visible unique hybrid steel and low embodied carbon cross-laminated timber roof slab structure, as well as exposed mechanical/electrical/plumbing and fire protection systems that demonstrate sustainable engineering principles.
While the New England climate can pose building performance and comfort challenges and raise energy use intensity (EUI), the Wilkens design and engineering teams found innovative ways to reduce energy requirements in the building’s research spaces and decrease overall EUI. To reduce energy use from fume hoods and the need for makeup air, 75 percent of the fume hoods in the chemistry teaching lab are ductless units that transfer air through specialized filters and release it safely back into the room. A 25,000 cubic-feet-per-minute (CFM) variable air volume system features dual enthalpy wheel/sensible energy recovery to provide supply air to all occupied spaces; this allows decoupling of ventilation from local heating and cooling to minimize the amount of reheat needed in spaces with high airflow requirements. Labs also include occupancy and carbon dioxide sensors and intuitive, wall-mounted controls that shift between classroom mode and lab mode, minimizing air changes and ventilation needs when researchers are not working in the lab.
The center includes 10-foot cantilevered roof overhangs that provide passive shading of interior spaces to reduce thermal cooling loads; this is important because the facility is one of the first buildings on Cape Cod’s campus to include air conditioning. Rooftop 225-kilowatt photovoltaics helped the building achieve its net zero status. The roof also houses an air-source heat pump (ASHP) to provide heating and cooling; a six-pipe ASHP produces chilled water and heating hot water and includes an energy recovery function for free heating during simultaneous heating and cooling loads—this helps reduce fossil fuel consumption by 95 percent! Gas boilers are employed as a backup to prevent freezing during Cape Cod’s coldest weather or when power is lost.
With cross-laminated timber slabs, low-carbon concrete, a wood-clad façade, and native plantings in the landscape, the Wilkens Science & Engineering Center’s design demonstrates sustainability inside and out. These building materials enabled the facility to reduce embodied carbon by 800 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (MTCO2e). The center even includes an innovative toilet with a closed-loop electrolysis system that produces fertilizer and recycles water for flushing, nearly eliminating the need for potable water in that restroom. With these efficient and sustainable features, the Frank & Maureen Wilkens Science & Engineering Center was able to achieve a net positive energy use of -5.2 kBTU/SF and a 105 percent energy reduction compared to a 2030 baseline, along with LEED Gold for New Construction (version 4).
Excellence in Energy Efficiency
9880 Campus Point Drive, San Diego
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc.
Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc. (Alexandria) is a leading owner, operator, and developer of collaborative mega-campuses in the top life science innovation clusters in the nation. Developed by Alexandria, 9880 Campus Point Drive is a 98,000-rentable-square-foot LEED® Platinum certified laboratory building on the Campus Point by Alexandria mega-campus in San Diego, which is home to Alexandria GradLabs®, a dynamic platform accelerating the growth of promising, early-stage life science companies. The state-of-the-art building was designed to operate as a highly energy-efficient research facility. Innovative strategies to reduce energy consumption included placing the circulation space and passageways outside, along the perimeter of the building, thereby taking advantage of the mild climate in San Diego and reducing the total area of conditioned space needed for the building.
The building operates with continuous air quality monitoring sensors that reduce ventilation rates in key areas, occupancy sensors that reduce the energy required for lighting and the HVAC system, high-performance mechanical and electrical systems that reduce lighting power density, a highly efficient building envelope, and high-efficiency plumbing fixtures that reduce the energy needed to heat water. The laboratory building’s design had a modeled energy use that was below California state energy code requirements. After two years in operation, the building earned a Labs2Zero pilot Energy Score of 96 using I2SL’s Laboratory Benchmarking Tool in 2023, indicating it outperforms 96 percent of similar facilities in operational energy efficiency.
Excellence in Resilience and Renewable Energy
United Therapeutics Project Lightyear
DPR Construction
Affiliated Engineers, Inc.
Hanbury
Project Lightyear, located in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, is a current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) logistics facility for United Therapeutics Corporation that was designed to target net-zero energy. The LEED® Gold facility, completed in 2023, was built on an underutilized soccer field and incorporated an existing field house on United Therapeutics’ campus. Supported by teams from DPR Construction, Affiliated Engineers, Inc., and Hanbury, Project Lightyear was able to reuse 70 percent of the existing structural and envelope elements of the field house, significantly reducing the embodied carbon of the project.
Project Lightyear includes several renewable energy components, including a geothermal HVAC system and an extensive rooftop photovoltaic (PV) array that covers nearly the entire roof and is expected to generate over 750 MWh of electricity per year. Because this is a critical facility, and the PV array may not be able to support the building 100 percent of the time, Project Lightyear has a backup battery system that is connected through a microgrid control system, allowing it to power the building and recharge it. The battery system and microgrid help account for the variability in weather and ensure operational resilience. The design team anticipates that with a fully operational microgrid, the entire facility should stay online for weeks, if not months, if there does happen to be an extended electrical outage. The geothermal system, as well as other energy-efficient design strategies, reduced the expected EUI for the building by 31 percent compared to the average conventional cold storage warehouse.
Excellence in Decarbonization and Building Reuse
Carleton College Evelyn M. Anderson Hall
Page
The Evelyn M. Anderson Hall at Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, was completed in 2020, with design support from Page. The building includes 117,000 square feet of renovated area and 58,000 square feet of new space. Anderson Hall was constructed in the footprint of a demolished building attached to the envelopes and structural members of two existing buildings that were renovated to create an integrated complex. A geothermal central plant conversion has led to 32 percent overall energy savings for the buildings. The transition to geothermal meets 70 percent of heating and cooling needs, supplemented by electric chillers and high-efficiency boilers on the coldest and hottest days. Thanks to the combined effects of the geothermal system, as well as two 1.6-megawatt commercial-scale utility horizontal-axis wind turbines and updates to the solar energy electric grid, the building reduced greenhouse gas emissions to 8,705.5 MTCO2e in 2021, a 68 percent reduction in net carbon emissions from their 2008 baseline of over 26,000 MTCO2e.
The building’s design includes three types of shading devices that prevent unwanted solar heat gain inside the building and high-performance glazing—a feature that improves window insulation and makes building heating and cooling more efficient, reducing carbon emissions. It also allows for natural daylight throughout the year with optimal heat gain, visual comfort, and views. The exterior materials incorporate local Minnesota granite and limestone coupled with blended brick and glass, which have less embodied carbon and environmental impact. Even with a 33 percent increase in total square footage, the building's energy-efficient measures decreased overall energy consumption from 40 million British thermal units (BTU) in the original building to 23.5 million BTU in the new design, a 41 percent reduction.
Excellence in Energy Retrofits
Loyola University Health Science Campus Heat Recovery Project
Elara Engineering
At Loyola University in Maywood, Illinois, Elara Engineering supported a major heat recovery project to address performance issues with an existing waterside economizer at the Health Science Campus in early 2023. Elara added a new water-to-water heat exchanger that connects the building’s high-temperature chilled water loop to existing heat recovery coils in the air handlers, which was designed to satisfy the building’s chilled water demand with outdoor air temperatures up to 40°F, while increasing the amount of energy recovered to the air handling units. The new water-to-water heat exchangers are piped in parallel to the exhaust air energy recovery coils so that they are able to operate simultaneously. Additionally, the heat recovery chiller remains in the loop to allow it to supplement the chilled water loop in the building, when available.
The new winter cooling heat exchangers reduce the cooling fan, pump, and chiller energy, as well as the energy used for heat tracing. The energy saved from disabling equipment, along with the energy recovered from the chilled water system, more than compensates for the increased pumping energy needed for the new heat recovery loop control valves. While the new heat exchangers add pressure losses to the building’s high-temperature chilled water pumps, the improved supply temperature control has reduced the chilled water flow rate that resulted in lower pump energy. The cooling tower can also be decommissioned through the winter, reducing the building’s water use.
Lab Programs and Initiatives Awards
Overall Award
European Molecular Biology Laboratory
This sculpture illustrates the amount of plastic waste created by research activities at EMBL Heidelberg.
With numerous research groups and scientific service teams at six different locations across Europe, the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) is taking a comprehensive approach to achieve lab sustainability. As a provider of cutting-edge fundamental life science research, tools, and expertise to scientists in Europe and beyond, EMBL is committed to environmentally responsible and relevant research and to promoting sustainable science. The organization helped create the Sustainable European Laboratories Network of national and international green lab groups to promote sustainable science and share their knowledge to help transition European research laboratories into more sustainable facilities.
To reduce waste in their labs, EMBL introduced recycling bins for mixed cardboard and paper, as well as plastic and metal packaging materials in 2023, recycling over 66 tons of waste that year. EMBL also established pipette tip box recycling at its headquarters in Heidelberg, Germany, which has helped divert 529 cubic feet of pipette tip boxes, while other EMBL sites have implemented a supplier return scheme to collect and return empty pipette tip boxes to the supplier. To illustrate the amount of plastic waste created by research activities, members of the EMBL Heidelberg Green Action group created an art exhibition using the tip boxes that were collected for recycling, displaying four weeks of collected tip boxes as an impressive waterfall of plastic. These initiatives have contributed to a 30 percent reduction in the amount of waste being sent to landfill and waste-to-energy facilities from EMBL’s headquarters since 2022, bringing their recycling rate to 39 percent in 2023.
To encourage behavior change among researchers, EMBL set and reached a 2023 goal of having all of its 82 labs sign up to the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF); 61 of those labs received LEAF certification, and five achieved LEAF Gold! LEAF was used to encourage expanded recycling efforts, energy audits through the Scientific Instrumentation Management Team, and freezers to be turned up to -70°C. To help meet their goal of removing non-essential single-use plastics from EMBL’s sites by 2025, the organization has reintroduced glassware for applicable experiments.
Because data services constitute EMBL’s largest electricity use, their data center teams have taken the initiative to implement strategies such as automatic node shutdown, limited processor frequencies, improved cooling, transferring to more efficient data centers, and consolidating data. Thanks to these efforts, EMBL reduced energy use across all its sites by 4.4 million kilowatt hours of electricity in 2023, which is 19 percent lower than in 2021. Energy use reductions have also decreased the organization’s Scope 1 and 2 emissions from 13,878 metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) in 2019 to 11,330 tCO2e by 2023, a reduction of 18 percent.
Award for Partnerships and Education
Green Labs Netherlands Foundation
In early 2021, green labs professionals in the Netherlands saw an opportunity to fill the need for a national initiative that promotes laboratory sustainability and supports the rising number of local grassroots initiatives in the country. They formed the Green Labs Netherlands Foundation (Green Labs NL), which is now run by 11 dedicated individuals. In its first few years, Green Labs NL dedicated considerable attention to educational opportunities, along with resource sharing at the national level. By doing so, they collaborated with a wide range of like-minded organizations in the Netherlands and across Europe. In 2022, the foundation organized the second edition of the global hybrid Sustainable Research Symposium, which facilitated knowledge-sharing and networking among 230 attendees from 26 countries.
As a collaborative project with the University Medical Center Utrecht, Green Labs NL has also been developing interactive e-modules focused on myriad topics, including data management, energy reduction, waste reduction, bias in science, and animal alternatives in research. These modules helped establish the national community Planetary Health In Science Education (PHISE) to inspire each other and share best practices. The team at Green Labs NL has made significant efforts to help over 15 Dutch institutes implement the LEAF certification tool, which resulted in over 120 labs obtaining LEAF certificates and counting. LEAF program implementation at these organizations resulted in reducing waste and energy usage and establishing best practice guidelines. For example, the University Medical Center Utrecht estimated that obtaining bronze or silver certification for all lab groups in the research department resulted in a 13 percent reduction in total CO2 emissions.
Award for Continuous Improvement
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Ongoing Commissioning (OCx) Program
At Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) in California, their Ongoing Commissioning (OCx) program has driven significant reductions in energy and water consumption, as well as contributed to continual improvements in laboratory ventilation safety, since 2017. The OCx program includes close collaboration among the Facilities Division, the Environmental Health and Safety Division, and their Sustainability Office. The LBNL OCx approach emphasizes teamwork to solve building-wide mechanical system issues, rather than trying to fix each of the symptoms individually. The OCx team uses analytical tools such as the SkySpark platform to systematically review all aspects of a lab building’s mechanical, electrical, and lighting systems to identify deficiencies. Automated fault detection and diagnostic tools, alerts, and a regular review process help the team quickly identify and respond to issues creating excessive lab energy or water consumption or affecting lab ventilation safety.
In 2023, the OCx team began identifying and responding to laboratory-specific safety issues related to fume hood operation, space pressurization, and ventilation. From early 2023 to spring 2024, the OCx team addressed 85 lab safety concerns, improving both the safety and comfort of lab spaces at LBNL. The OCx team’s efforts have contributed to annual energy savings at LBNL of over 12,500 megawatt hours (MWh) and annual water savings of 5.6 million gallons. The OCx program has been instrumental in reducing the EUI at LBNL in its general building stock (excluding process loads) by 29 percent compared to a 2015 baseline and reducing total natural gas consumption by 30 percent.
Honorable Mention
Washington University in St. Louis
Green Labs Program
After the COVID-19 pandemic postponed the launch of the Washington University in St. Louis’ Green Labs Program, the program was finally able to take off in 2023 and has continued to grow in 2024. The Green Labs Program started by surveying over 230 labs, providing a baseline for equipment efficiency, energy use, and waste reduction. Program development fostered a strong collaboration between sustainability, facilities, and the university’s Environmental Health and Safety Department. The program created its own certification initiative for labs on campus. Labs can complete a checklist that aims to evaluate labs’ current sustainability practices and provide a robust suite of resources for sustainable changes labs can make. Nearly 50 labs are now certified participants in the Green Labs Program, thanks to their efforts to reduce lab packaging waste, promote shut-the-sash behaviors, power down lab equipment, retire old, inefficient lab freezers, and more.
Honorable Mention
Virginia Tech Fralin Biomedical Research Institute
Green Labs Program
The Virginia Tech Fralin Biomedical Research Institute Green Labs Program, launched in February 2022, is driven by laboratory managers and graduate students, with the support of operations management personnel. The program’s Green Labs internship position offers high school students hands-on experience as they support the program’s many recycling programs. With 70 percent of the Institute’s labs participating, the Green Labs Program has helped divert over 1,550 polystyrene foam coolers, 1,100 pounds of plastic film (including ice pack packaging), and nearly 7,000 pipette tip boxes from landfills, among other recycling and sustainable purchasing efforts.
Phil Wirdzek Leadership Award
2024 Phil Wirdzek Leader
Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar
University of Colorado Green Labs Program Manager
As a passionate advocate for the green labs community for over 15 years and a leader in the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL), Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar emulates I2SL Founding President Phil Wirdzek’s spirit and enthusiasm for promoting and fostering I2SL’s mission. After studying chemistry and working as a post-doctorate in biochemistry at the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder, Kathy founded the CU Boulder Green Labs Program in partnership with the campus Environmental Center and Facilities Management—one of the first university green lab programs in the United States—which she has been growing since 2009. Under Kathy’s leadership, the CU Boulder Green Labs Program has become an example for other programs across the world, pioneering initiatives from cold storage efficiency and equipment sharing to sustainable purchasing and shut-the-sash campaigns. What makes Kathy stand out, however, is that she doesn’t just focus on her institution, but inspires and helps others to launch and improve their own green labs programs.
Kathy was one of a handful of people to approach I2SL about increasing its reach to universities and other lab owners. For example, following a friendly competition with CU Boulder and University of California Davis, Kathy and Allen Doyle created the platform for what became the International Freezer Challenge, giving materials and management ideas to I2SL and My Green Lab to launch the challenge. She continues to promote and encourage other labs to undertake this and other efforts to educate researchers, evaluate lab space utilization, share equipment, and raise awareness of the need to connect expectations for efficiency and sustainability in the way research is conducted to science funding. She also shares her ideas and knowledge to help I2SL stay abreast of these important issues and better serve the entire sustainable laboratory community.
Kathy has been an active member and leader of I2SL for many years, serving on the Board of Directors since 2019. To bring together institutional professionals to discuss important lab sustainability and efficiency issues, share resources, and learn from one another, Kathy formed the I2SL University of Alliance Group (UAG), which she still chairs, hosting monthly calls to ensure that university and green labs personnel across the world can network with their peers. As part of the UAG, she also created the Bringing Efficiency to Research (BETR) Grants initiative, which fosters ideas for efficiency and sustainability researchers can incorporate into their grant proposals and provides insight for granting bodies to encourage environmental sustainability in the research they fund. Stemming from Kathy’s efforts, I2SL and My Green Lab launched the Million Advocates for Sustainable Science (MASS) campaign, which calls for systemic change within the global science funding system to demand sustainability. The campaign has received over 1,000 signatories—which in large part can be contributed to the University Alliance Group’s promotion of MASS at conferences, through webinars, and other speaking engagements.
Beyond I2SL, Kathy attends and speaks at research-related events, including the annual Association of Biomolecular Resource Facilities and numerous virtual conferences, where she advocates for systemic changes needed for widespread, swift adoption of green lab principles and practices by the scientific community. She has contributed to many journal articles and interviews to share the benefits of green lab programs and promote sustainable lab practices. And starting in 2023, Kathy initiated and co-led the development of an introductory green labs workshop at the I2SL Annual Conference along with other university colleagues who teach attendees how to create and grow green lab programs. It's clear that Kathy’s consistent dedication, infectious energy, passion for sustainable research practices, and fostering of tomorrow’s leaders have made the green labs movement what it is today, just as Phil Wirdzek did for sustainable labs.
Emerging Leader Award
Andrew King
AstraZeneca
Accelerating sustainable science in the pharmaceutical industry is critical to decarbonizing labs worldwide; within biopharma, Andrew King of AstraZeneca has emerged as a green labs leader for his company and an inspiration to others in the field. As AstraZeneca’s Director of Safety, Health, and Environment Lead for Global Quality, Andrew has cultivated a culture of sustainability across the pharmaceutical company’s global sites, lab facilities, scientists, and other teams, reaching thousands of researchers and other employees. He has led AstraZeneca’s efforts to certify their research facilities under the My Green Lab program, resulting in nearly 100 lab certifications, including 40 that have achieved My Green Lab’s highest level of certification.
In recognition of Andrew’s efforts to encourage efficient cold storage in labs across the company, AstraZeneca has received the top organization award from the International Freezer Challenge hosted by I2SL and My Green Lab. But Andrew doesn’t just focus internally at AstraZeneca; he has inspired scientists and others across the pharmaceutical industry through speaking engagements and a strategic collaboration between AstraZeneca and My Green Lab. Looking ahead, Andrew is working with AstraZeneca’s suppliers to help reduce both the company’s Scope 3 emissions and inspire sustainable procurement practices across the supply chain.
Honorable Mention
National Institutes of Health
Green Labs Program Interdisciplinary Team
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has long been a leader in green labs initiatives. The organization works tirelessly to continue to improve sustainability in NIH labs/research campuses across the country. A key component of this effort is a voluntary, online green labs self-assessment form that helps each lab learn and evaluate their sustainability efforts. Last year, a group of 19 NIH staff voluntarily conducted extensive outreach, helped with customizing labs’ assessments, and shared participation statistics that ultimately increased participation in the Green Labs Program by 87 percent compared to 2022. These 19 NIH employees who served the Green Labs Program have earned this honorable mention for their dedication and leadership in creating a culture of sustainability and climate action across the federal research sector.