Building Green Labs: Practical Strategies for Sustainability, Safety, and Cost Savings
Pam Greenley, MS, CIH, Certified Industrial Hygienist
Sustainable lab design has become more than a buzzword—it's an essential approach for reducing environmental impact, controlling operating costs, and ensuring safe, efficient laboratory operations. Laboratories are notoriously resource-intensive, consuming far more energy and water than typical commercial buildings and producing significant amounts of waste. Thoughtful design, operational practices, and targeted upgrades can make a dramatic difference, not only for the planet but for research institutions' budgets and the safety of lab personnel.
On October 6-7, 2025, Pam Greenley, MS, CIH, Certified Industrial Hygienist with over 20 years of experience in laboratory EHS management, and Jacob Werner, AIA, LEED, WELL, CPHC, principal at Ellenzweig, will teach an Eagleson Institute course titled "Building Your Green Labs Program: Savings, Sustainability, and Safety in Lab Operations." This two-day program teaches cost-saving and sustainability initiatives for lab settings, blending lecture with hands-on training. Students will explore current programs, evaluate case studies, and learn how sustainability efforts impact energy and water use, operating costs, and the integrity of scientific research. Participants will gain practical tools to start or enhance green lab programs, apply low- and no-cost initiatives, and assess ROI from sustainable lab practices. The course is designed for lab managers, biosafety officers, facilities engineers, EH&S staff, principal investigators, architects, and certifiers.
Werner and Greenley spoke to Lab Design News and shared insights into common sustainability challenges, practical strategies, and lessons learned from successful green lab programs.
Understanding the challenge
Werner highlights the sheer scale of the problem: "A lab building can use 10 times as much energy as a similarly sized office building. A scientist can use 10 times as much water as an office worker. A researcher can produce 10 times as much trash. And so on," he says. "People say 'everything is bigger in Texas.' The same is true for labs."
Energy consumption and carbon emissions are among the most pressing environmental concerns. Werner explains that labs rely heavily on HVAC systems to maintain safe and controlled environments. "By far the biggest energy user is HVAC. Building codes require more fresh air movement inside labs for worker safety. And labs have lots of safety devices that use ventilation, like fume hoods, biosafety cabinets, and snorkels. These add up to a huge demand on the building's HVAC systems. Labs can use five to 10 times as much ventilation as a similarly sized office building. And specialized labs, like animal facilities and cleanrooms, use even more. All that air must be moved, filtered, heated, and cooled, leading to massive building energy use. Anything we can do to reduce ventilation has a major impact on reducing energy."
Low-cost, high-impact strategies
Jacob Werner, AIA, LEED, WELL, CPHC, principal at Ellenzweig
Fortunately, many sustainability strategies are cost-effective and relatively easy to implement. A straightforward example is a "shut the sash" campaign, such as the one at Harvard’s Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Werner notes, "Good training and small incentives can improve both worker safety and building sustainability in one step." Another approach is I2SL’s LabSavers campaign, which encourages labs to conduct a spring cleaning to free up space, save money, and reduce energy use simultaneously. Low- or no-cost interventions like these can yield significant benefits without requiring major renovations.
Greenley emphasizes that sustainable lab practices can align closely with safety and operational efficiency. "Treat your lab like your home. Shut the sash on your hoods, turn out the lights, and turn off or turn down lab equipment. Generate as little hazardous waste as possible. Learn the waste rules and don't label waste as hazardous if it's not, and change research processes to generate as little hazardous waste as possible." Collaborating with EH&S teams ensures that new practices meet safety requirements while promoting sustainability. "Many times, all it takes is asking EHS if a change in how PPE or waste is handled still meets safety requirements. EHS guidance can be more specific and therefore can loosen requirements when specific cases are addressed," Greenley adds.
The role of education and technology
Education and communication are also critical for successful green lab programs. Labs often discover that sustainability measures have already been implemented at the corporate or institutional level and can build upon those foundations. Greenley observes, "Researchers need to be educated on how their lab works for them to fully engage in greening the lab. Researchers are frequently isolated from neighboring labs and welcome learning about their neighbors' research and green lab efforts."
New technologies are further enhancing sustainability in modern laboratories. Werner notes, "New technologies can be implemented at the lab scale and/or the building scale. Lab scale technologies might include fume hood automatic sash closers. These can be very effective at saving energy and are easy to implement. Building scale technologies might include switching from natural gas heating to electric heat pumps. Converting buildings, including labs, from fossil-fuel systems to electric systems is a critical step on the path toward powering buildings with renewable energy." Pilot programs, site visits, and staff training are essential for ensuring these investments achieve measurable returns.
Architects, facilities teams, and lab users all have a role in designing sustainable labs. Greenley advises, "Each lab needs to have a representative at each design meeting. EHS needs to be included from the start on lab design projects." Werner encourages looking to other Green Labs programs for inspiration, such as the one at MIT. Other tools like the Smart Labs Toolkit and I2SL Best Practices guides (including the Energy Efficiency Projects and Principal Investigators guide) provide technical resources and case studies to support collaborative, sustainable design and operations. Green Lab Certification programs, such as those offered by My Green Lab and Lab ReNew, are other good resources for sustainability best practices. Guides are also available for advances technologies such as energy recovery, predictive maintenance, and building automation systems.
By combining thoughtful design, smart technologies, and staff engagement, laboratories can achieve meaningful energy and resource savings while maintaining the highest safety and research standards. The upcoming Eagleson Institute course offers lab professionals a hands-on opportunity to learn these strategies in depth and return to their facilities equipped to implement real-world, impactful sustainability programs.
