More labs go green all over

Written byBob Grant

| 2 min read

It appears that the link between science and building green is strengthening with each passing day. Last week, Arizona State University announced its choice of HDR Architects and Steven Ehrlich Architects to design its new Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building (ISTB) IV scheduled for completion on its Tempe campus by 2010. The university plans to seek a minimum of LEED Silver status for the 250,000-square-foot building, which will house offices and laboratories for ASU's School of Earth and Science Exploration. While LEED Silver is a substantial goal, recently built labs - such as UC Santa Barbara's linkurl:Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management;https://www.bren.ucsb.edu/ and the National Renewable Laboratory's linkurl:Science and Technology Facility;https://www.the-scientist.com/2007/6/1/29/1/ in Golden, Colorado - have gone the whole hog, obtaining LEED Platinum status. Meanwhile in Ohio, the linkurl:Great Lakes Science Center;https://www.glsc.org/ plans to unveil its latest green feature next week. The center will dedicate a 300 foot solar array on July 11th, with the panels adding another form of alternative energy to the wind power already generated by a 150 foot turbine that the center installed last year. While the wind turbine generates a peak 225 kilowatts per hour, the solar panels are expected to average an output of 100 kilowatt-hours per year. According to a press release issued by the center, this is enough to power all the lighting for the center's 65,000 square feet of exhibition space. As the Great Lakes Science Center is more of a science museum than a research facility, officials there will use the solar panels (as they have done with the wind turbine) to raise public awareness about alternative energy sources, with exhibits informing visitors of facts involving the solar array's power generation. And on another green education note, the linkurl:U.S. Conference of Mayors;https://usmayors.org/uscm/home.asp (the same group that recently decided my hometown of St. Louis, Missouri had the linkurl:best tasting tap water;https://www.usmayors.org/75thAnnualMeeting/pressrelease_062507b.pdf of any city in the country. Thanks?) announced a green schools resolution that urges Congress to provide funding for research into the environmental, economic, and health benefits of green K-12 schools. The resolution was introduced by Des Moines, Iowa mayor T.M. Franklin Cownie and was unanimously supported by the conference's 1,100-plus mayoral members. All this activity comes at a time when some in the wider green movement are linkurl:questioning;https://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/01/fashion/01green.html whether we have forsaken the basic principles of ecological impact reduction in favor of consuming more, just in a greener way. Still wondering about the most responsible and practical way to green your lab, school, or science museum? Click on over to our linkurl:Interactive Q&A forum;https://www.the-scientist.com/article/daily/53242/ to ask our panel of green lab experts their advice.

Meet the Author

Bob Grant

From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.

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More labs go green all over

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