| |
Educating the Workforce on Sustainable Design at Sandia National
Laboratories
Jack Mizner, Sandia
National Laboratories
Sandia National Laboratories, New Mexico (SNL/NM) has incorporated
sustainable design (SD) into the construction of its facilities
since 1999. A total of five line items project and three general
plant projects (GPP) have included SD elements in programming documents
and the design process, and SNL/NM has received two DOE Pollution
Prevention awards for it's efforts. Despite this success, confusion
exists among the SNL/NM staff and the A/E contractors on the meaning
and intent of SD and the project deliverables and expectations,
including a required SD report. To address this issue, SNL/NM Facilities
is conducting an in-house training, an "Integrated Educational
Series" of workshops on Sustainable Design for SNL/NM and A/E
contractor personnel. These personnel include architects, engineers,
project managers, building owners and procurement and environmental
professionals. The goal for the workshops is to educate individuals
on the elements of sustainability to aid SNL/NM in making educated
decisions in its building designs. Conducting the workshops in-house
will reinforce SNL/NM expertise and focus on specific laboratory
conditions and requirements.
The SD workshops will be held mid-day each month from April through
October 2003. A separate, one-day workshop on energy simulations,
conducted by a modeling expert, will be held in July. These workshops
are a pilot educational series that may extend to other topic areas.
Continuing educational credits for professional certification will
be offered.
The first workshop is an introduction to SD focusing on the use
of Leadership in Energy and Environmental (LEED™) and the Labs21
Environmental Performance Criteria (EPC). It will also review SNL/NM
project requirements and review the requirements for an SD report.
The workshop will be presented twice to ensure that all personnel
involved in the design process will have a chance to attend. Subsequent
workshops will deal with specific aspects of SD and focus on a more
limited audience. The topics for the subject specific workshops
are: Site Considerations, Commissioning, Energy Efficiency, Energy
Modeling, Materials and Recycling, Water Conservation and Indoor
Environmental Quality and Day Lighting.
Objectives:
The objective of this presentation is present the results of the
SD workshops series, including feedback from the participants and
the effort the training has had on incorporating sustainable design
into current projects.
Findings:
The findings will include:
- An overview of each of the sessions, the type of attendees and
the feedback results from the sessions.
- An evaluation of the effectiveness of the training based on
monitoring the progress of ongoing projects for the quality of
project deliverables, such as SD, Waste Management, Energy Conservation
and Construction Indoor Air Quality reports, and the incorporation
of sustainable design features. This evaluation will focus on
the fast track GPPs.
Labs21 Connection:
Because the intention is to provide a basic education and awareness
to SNL/NM personnel and A/E contractors that design and construct
building, the effect of these trainings is potentially far reaching.
As such, the entire Labs21 Approach will be discussed as part of
the training. Specific strategies will be implemented in projects
as appropriate. That said, in the short term, the Labs21 strategies
most germane to this effort are:
- Assess opportunities from a "whole buildings" approach.
- Promote energy and water efficiency Operation and Training Efforts
Biography:
Jack Mizner, the
Pollution Prevention Coordinator with Sandia National Labs, has
over 18 years experience in both the public and private sectors
in the areas of domestic and industrial water and wastewater treatment;
groundwater treatment; hazardous and radioactive waste management
and treatment; pollution prevention and sustainable design. His
education includes a B.S. in Biology from GA. State and M.S. degrees
in Ecology and Environmental Engineering from GA Tech. He is a registered
Professional Engineer in the state of New Mexico and a Certified
Hazardous Materials Manager.
|
