Why Laboratories and High Performance Facilities?
These facilities represent an ever-expanding growth opportunity for advanced, environmentally preferred, building technologies. The typical laboratory, for example, uses far more energy and water per square foot than the typical office building due to intensive ventilation requirements and other health and safety concerns. Because the requirements of laboratories and related high performance facilities differ so dramatically from those of other buildings, a clear need exists for an initiative exclusively targeting these facilities. The primary guiding principle of the Labs21 approach is that improving the energy efficiency and environmental performance of these facilities requires examining the entire facility from a “whole building” perspective. Adopting this perspective allows owners to improve the efficiency of the entire facility, rather than focusing on specific building components. As Labs21 participants understand, improving the efficiency of individual components without examin
