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PROJECTS |
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PARTNERS |
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Director, Center for Smart Building and Community Design
University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program
2525 Correa Road, HIG 212
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To advance sustainable, high-performance, and low-energy marine laboratories that will minimize overall environmental impacts, protect occupant safety, optimize whole building efficiency on a lifecycle basis, establish measurable goals, track performance, and share results for continuous improvement.
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| Energy Conservation
Energy Efficiency
Reduced Emissions
Daylighting
Efficient heating and cooling
Renewable energy generation
Direct digital controls
Energy efficient lab equipment and operations |
Energy and resource efficient materials
Low toxicity in materials
Reusable, recycled and recyclable
Regenerative materials
Water Conservation
Efficient water use
Water Quality- supply & effluent
Recharging groundwater
Corrosion |
| Energy and resource efficient materials
Low toxicity in materials
Reusable, recycled and recyclable
Regenerative materials |
Whole systems building design
Preserving and restoring ecosystems
Building adaptability and reuse
Indoor air quality
Occupant performance and satisfaction
Human conditions for the animals
Labs as models and pedagogical tools |
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CENTER OF EXCELLENCE GOALS
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Develop and initiate strategic research, education, outreach, and capacity building activities for marine-based labs and aquaria
Identify constraints facing marine-based laboratories and aquaria, investigate and encourage the implementation of architectural and engineering solutions to address these constraints
Demonstrate effective, cost-effective laboratory design and operating technology directed at achieving sustainability
Establish a national resource network and clearinghouse to develop and provide information and materials including technical tools, web-based resources, and case studies to document the potential for sustainable low-energy marine lab design, operation and habitat restoration
Provide educational outreach, technical assistance and peer to peer exchange forums to laboratory administrators, operators, academic institutions, governments, and organizations to foster more efficient, environmentally responsive, and cost-effective marine laboratory design and operation
Provide lab and aquaria assessment tools, resource sharing and capacity building through the new national network
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The locus for UH Labs21 Center of Excellence in Marine-Based Laboratories is Coconut Island, situated within Kaneohe Bay off shore the island of Oahu. This 28.8 acre site, with 6 acres enclosed in lagoons, is surround by 64 acres of coral reef designated by the State of Hawaii as the Hawaii Marine Laboratory Refuge. The world-renowned UH Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology is situated on Coconut Island, atop the very resource its scientists study. This unique location provides both unparalleled research opportunities as well as a model environment in which the principles of sustainability can be tested and demonstrated.
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Since the University of Hawaii, Sea Grant Program held its first Labs 21 Design Workshop at the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) on Coconut Island in November 2001, it has moved steadily forward in advancing energy efficiency in its laboratory and campus buildings. While increasing its world-class ocean science research, educational and outreach programs, UH Sea Grant has also expanded its mission to include improved building design and operational performance. The program has initiated and supported an extensive energy benchmarking study on the main UH campus. It has undertaken an innovative solar energy and water catchment study for the same campus and is about to establish building performance standards for the design of new and the renovation of existing buildings for all of the university campuses. As these projects support reduced energy demand, renewable energy applications and resource conservation throughout the university system, Sea Grant, and its newly formed Center for Smart Building and Community Design, have also focused much effort towards improving their marine-based laboratories. The 14,000 square foot Pauley Marine Science Laboratory burns nearly a quarter of a million dollars a year in electricity. 88% of that total goes only to the air conditioning. This 8 year old laboratory building is about to undergo an extensive energy retrofit. In 2002 the University of Hawaii became a Labs 21 Pilot Partner and in 2003 UH proposed to establish a Labs 21 Center of Excellence for Marine-Based Laboratories at the university.
One year later the joint US EPA, Department of Energy, Laboratories of the 21st Century Program granted the Center of Excellence designation to UH to promote the design and operation of high performance marine education and research labs. In June of 2004, funding was allocated by the state legislature for the design of a new, state of the art, marine science laboratory on Coconut Island. This 20,000 square foot laboratory will embody the principles of the Labs 21 program. It will become the physical model for marine research laboratories and provide a focal point to the University of Hawaii’s Labs of the 21st Century program.
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CREATING A NATIONAL NETWORK:
The UH Center of Excellence will coalesce constituencies that are associated with marine-based laboratories and aquaria.
It will focus its efforts in 3 spheres of activity
3- Elevated Best-Practice Standards in the Design and Operational Service Industry
Each of these sectors has distinct stakeholders but their interests and activities frequently intersect. Currently there is no network to allow the variety of players from the various disciplines to convene, communicate, problem-solve and improve the quality and performance of marine based labs. Initial activities of the Center will be to identify the constituents in each of these categories. Center personnel will contact them, catalogue their functions, activity types, mutually supportive capacities and ascertain their respective needs and capacity building opportunities. From this base line, a demand- service matrix will be created. This will initiate the Marine based Labs network.
There are two distinct, parallel research groups within the marine based laboratory community; one is the marine science investigators performing research within the labs,
Second are the federal, state, academic and industry investigators performing research to improve the operation of the labs and their ability to positively interact with their environments. Enhanced communication between these two groups will elevate the overall performance of the labs, the safety within them and the preservation of the environments around them.
Educational outreach will disseminate the information from the research activities and additional external sources to bring best-practice applications to marine research/education labs and aquariums. The Sea Grant network is especially well suited to deliver this information though it existing extension agent structure. The target audience will include all of the constituent groups. The overarching objective is to reduce the environmental footprints of laboratories and aquaria. The efforts will include public educational programs, best practice operational guidelines for marine science researchers, facility directors, facilities personnel, university and industry researchers, architects, engineers and industry material and equipment suppliers.
3.0 Elevated Best-Practice Standards in the Design and Operational Service Industry
Design, Construction, Operational Services
Expertise in the architectural and engineering based areas of energy/resource efficient marine based laboratories exists in isolated pockets throughout the country. Collecting the existing standard practices in the areas of design, construction and laboratory operations will not only create jobs by connecting specific service industry suppliers with particular facilities but it will also provide a forum for information and technology transfer that will elevate the quality of services that can be provided and ultimately improve the standard operational quality of the labs around the country and beyond.
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MARINE BASED LABORATORIES – WORKSHOPS AND CONFERENCE
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Building on the Labs 21, National Marine Based Labs Network, as mentioned above, the Center will facilitate workshops and a marine-based conference. The workshops will focus on specific issues such as lab design and retrofits and research and educational outreach program development and coastal habitat restoration. The larger conference will provide a forum for the various constituencies to assemble, transfer information and seek opportunities to improve their respective facilities. Creating these forums, along with the web format, will allow marine science labs and aquarium as a sub group of the Labs 21 program, to share resources, information and technologies that will eventually improve the quality of labs and aquarium around the country.
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MARINE-BASED LAB PERFORMANCE GUIDELINES
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In recent years much has been written to improve the energy conservation of general laboratory operations but design and operational guidelines specific to marine based labs and aquaria has have not yet been established. The UH Labs 21 Center of Excellence will utilize the network described above to generate a pilot Labs 21 Marine-Based Laboratory High Performance Guideline. The Guideline will address energy use quantities in lighting, heating and cooling, equipment operation, and the other special energy demands that are required in a marine labs and aquaria. Water conservation, water quality, air quality and impacts on the surrounding environment will be outlined in detail. Existing standard practices will be identified. Recommendations for improved “best practice” methods will be made. Potential benefits, savings and costs will be identified. The pilot high performance guidelines will be peer reviewed and made available to the national marine labs network.
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