Aggressive growth Down Under The Univ. of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia, just finished the $55 million Australian Institute for Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, a major multidisciplinary lab for research in the biological, chemical, and physical sciences. Designed to foster industry/ academic partnerships, the lab joins several other sizable new facilities on the university’s St. Lucia Campus, including the government/academic Queensland Bioscience Precinct, the Sir James Foots Building for the Sustainable Minerals Institute, and the Queensland Brain Institute. Upcoming by 2010: a large center for clinical research and a $235 million translational medical research facility. For more: www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=10703. Berkeley lab plan takes long view A long-range plan recently released by the Dept. of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, Calif., calls for significant site improvements by 2025. To accommodate scientific objectives as well as a site population growth of ~50 people per year, the lab hopes to increase available building space. Currently LBNL operates in about 1.76 million ft2 of buildings scattered around the 200-acre site; the plan calls for demolition of up to 320,000 ft2 of outdated and/or unsafe facilities and adding up to 980,000 ft2 in new construction. Significant upgrades to parking, circulation, utilities, and landscaping are projected. For more: www.lbl.gov/LRDP/. Seattle issues green mandate The new Green Factor initiative aims to encourage builders in Seattle to incorporate green roofs, vegetated walls, and other sustainability features in their projects. Unlike zoning ordinances that impose comprehensive LEED-style standards, the city’s Green Factor mandate emphasizes planting as a sustainability tool, using trade-offs with existing requirements to encourage compliance. For instance, some existing open-space requirements in the zoning code might be waived if builders install compensatory landscaping. Developers also earn points for planting in public rights of way. The rules apply to commercial facilities of more than 4,000 ft2, as well as multi-unit residential buildings (five units or more). For more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/297947_greenfactor01.html. NIST seeks lab improvements The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s proposed budget for FY 2008 includes funding to upgrade existing facilities in Colorado and Gaithersburg, Md. If passed, the federal appropriation would provide ~$28 million for an expansion of Building 1, a research lab in Boulder, Colo., to improve measurement capabilities related to work in high-frequency electronics, advanced materials characterization at the atomic level, sub-cellular forces, timing accuracy, and other areas. The total cost for the lab expansion, estimated at $76 million, would be covered by appropriations in FY 2007, 2008, and 2009. In addition, the 2008 request includes ~$19 million for expansion and reliability improvements to the NIST Center for Neutron Research in Gaithersburg. The appropriation is part of a five-year program to develop a new neutron cold source, plus a new guide tube hall, modernized controls, and five new neutron instruments. For more: www.nist.gov/public_affairs/releases/budget_2008.htm. Campuses pushed toward LEED Silver The Assn. for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education, a membership group of colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada, recently released a policy recommendation that campus construction should be designed to meet at least the LEED Silver standard. The recommendation is part of AASHE’s effort to support the American College & University Presidents Climate Commitment—an initiative whose goal is to sign up more than 1,000 presidents and chancellors by the end of 2009. Signers pledge to eliminate greenhouse gases on campus over time. For more: www.aashe.org and www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org. In related news, the Sustainable Endowments Institute recently released its “College Sustainability Report Card,” which grades 100 leading colleges by analyzing both sustainability practices and endowment investment policies. The highest cumulative score (A-) was achieved by Harvard Univ., Stanford Univ., Dartmouth College, and Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.). When endowment investment policies were excluded, 26 institutions received a grade of A- or better. For more: www.endowmentinstitute.org/sustainability/. Redesign could slash data center power use Sun Microsystems, Intel, and Cisco Systems have joined the Environmental Energy Technologies Div. of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in developing technology to greatly reduce power consumption by data centers. A recent test demonstration at Sun’s facility in Newark, Calif., illustrated the promise of techniques to eliminate power conversion loss by using DC power rather than AC from the electricity grid. The system converts high-voltage AC directly into high-voltage DC, which is stepped down to low voltage within the IT equipment. Savings are estimated at 10 to 20% compared with current systems involving multiple conversion steps. For more: www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/EETD-DC-power.html. USGBC tech committee weighs in on PVC The U.S. Green Building Council’s Technical and Scientific Advisory Committee has issued a long-anticipated report to the LEED Steering Committee regarding a possible PVC-related LEED credit. The tech committee analyzed concerns about the material, including end-of-life issues such as toxic emissions released from burning. The report hedged on a yes-or-no answer regarding PVC, instead directing the LEED Steering Committee to use the report’s data in hashing out the issues. (For example, the committee must consider whether LEED should be awarding credits for avoiding less- desirable materials, vs. providing credit incentives for the use of preferable materials.) Any plan to directly address PVC in the LEED credit system will follow the USGBC consensus process, including a public comment period and a member ballot. For more: www.usgbc.org/News/PressReleaseDetails.aspx?ID=2957.