Webinar Review: New I2SL Tools for HVAC Savings in Lab Facilities
Laboratory buildings remain some of the most energy-intensive facilities in the world, consuming three to five times more energy than a typical commercial building—and often much more. With ventilation systems accounting for a significant percentage of that load, identifying energy-efficiency opportunities in HVAC operations can be both complex and costly. In this context, the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) has increasingly become a central resource for lab owners, planners, designers, and facility teams seeking data-driven, lab-specific strategies for decarbonization.
Industry experts joined Lab Design for an exclusive webinar in the HVAC Design for a Sustainable Lab Digital Conference on November 19, 2025. Their session, “New I2SL Tools for HVAC Savings in Lab Facilities,” offered a deep, highly practical look at the newest additions to I2SL’s Labs2Zero program—particularly the AIM Report, a first-of-its-kind automated energy-audit tool designed specifically for laboratories. Presented by Gordon Sharp (president, I2SL), Alison Farmer, PhD (Labs2Zero program director and secretary of the board of directors for I2SL), and Deirdre Carter (energy and sustainability manager, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory), the session walked attendees through the tool’s purpose, functionality, and real-world impact.
This webinar, along with the other webinars in the HVAC Design for a Sustainable Lab Digital Conference, is available for free on demand viewing. AIA members who complete this webinar may contact Lab Design at aia@labdesignconference.com to receive 1 LU.
For lab professionals looking to prioritize energy-efficiency projects or justify investments, this webinar offers valuable context on emerging tools and strategies. Lab Design spoke with Sharp and Farmer after the digital conference to gain additional insight into the development of the AIM Report, its intended impact, and how organizations are beginning to apply it in real-world settings.
Why labs need tailored energy-efficiency tools
Gordon Sharp, president, I2SL
According to Sharp and Farmer, laboratories have long been underserved when it comes to mainstream energy-efficiency programs. Very few audits, scorecards, or benchmarking systems fully reflect the complexity and operational risks inherent to research environments. Farmer highlights this gap clearly: “Most of the energy efficiency programs for buildings either ignore lab buildings completely or put them in the ‘Other’ category, which really does labs a disservice.”
Without appropriate benchmarking tools, even identifying whether a lab building is performing well or poorly can be challenging. As Farmer points out, “There has never been an ENERGY STAR score for lab buildings, which has limited owners’ abilities to evaluate the performance of their lab facilities. Our Labs2Zero building performance scores were designed to fill that gap.”
The webinar’s central focus is the AIM Report, a 2025 Labs2Zero program release that automates the process of identifying, prioritizing, and packaging energy-efficiency measures for lab facilities. It integrates a curated library of lab-specific ECMs (energy conservation measures), building data, and intelligent assumptions to generate quantified estimates of savings, costs, and payback periods.
In the webinar, the speakers outlined how AIM fits into the larger Labs2Zero ecosystem—especially its integration with the Laboratory Benchmarking Tool (LBT), which now hosts both performance scores and AIM’s audit outputs.
“When creating the AIM Report, our goal was to build a tool that would allow lab owners and their consultants to identify and prioritize lab-specific energy efficiency opportunities quickly and inexpensively,” says Farmer. “This will then allow them to build the business case to secure the necessary funds to proceed with a more detailed engineering evaluation and an impactful energy efficiency project with less risk. We are hoping that as the AIM Report is used more widely, stakeholders will be empowered to make smart decisions and identify impactful projects to pursue at their facilities, with a corresponding increase in global lab energy efficiency retrofits.”
This emphasis on risk reduction, business-case development, and portfolio-level prioritization was consistently illustrated through examples during the webinar, including demonstrations of how building teams can construct measure packages aligned with budget limits or ROI requirements.
How early users are applying the tool
Alison Farmer, PhD, Labs2Zero program director and secretary of the board of directors, I2SL
One of the most compelling portions of the webinar involved early-user feedback and real-world comparisons between AIM outputs and traditional audits. “Some of our early users, especially during our pre-release pilot phase, have compared their AIM results with those of more traditional in-depth audits conducted by consultants with lab experience. As Deirdre said in our recent webinar, we have been pleased to see that the AIM report can produce results that match those of more detailed studies, with much smaller investments of time.”
Farmer also notes, “We have started to see engineering consultants use the AIM Report as part of their consulting offerings to clients.” This signals a broader industry shift, where standardized tools may enhance (rather than replace) professional services by improving consistency and enabling quicker preliminary assessments.
Throughout the webinar, the presenters demonstrated how AIM automatically links users to case studies that align with their building type, selected measures, and operational context.
Sharp explains, “The AIM Report automatically shows users case studies from facilities that are the closest match to their own buildings and to the set of energy efficiency measures they selected within AIM. Because the case studies illustrate successful project implementations at similar facilities, this can help to build confidence in the specific energy-saving measures under consideration. It can also provide relevant lessons learned to apply to new projects and reduce risks.”
This feature plays a crucial role in alleviating institutional hesitation—especially in safety-critical facilities where changes to HVAC systems can raise justified concerns. During the webinar, the presenters briefly highlighted several examples, showing how these case studies are embedded within the AIM interface to support decision-making.
Prioritizing investments amid budget constraints
Deirdre Carter, energy and sustainability manager, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
With campuses and research organizations facing aging infrastructure and tightening budgets, the tool’s ability to create custom measure packages resonated strongly with attendees.
“AIM is designed to help organizations build the business case for energy projects in lab buildings,” says Farmer. “Because AIM provides custom savings and costs estimates for a wide range of measures in labs, users can leverage the results to prioritize between measures to suit their investment and facility needs. Users can construct packages of measures to meet a specific payback, budget, or ROI requirement, for example. And the PDF report generated by the AIM software can be shared within organizations to help make the financial case to decisionmakers.”
This aligns closely with several of the webinar’s learning objectives, including building portfolios of high-impact, cost-effective measures and using performance scores to prioritize which buildings should be addressed first.
Looking ahead: The future of global lab sustainability
The session closed with a look into I2SL’s roadmap for 2026 and beyond, including forthcoming updates to the Labs2Zero scoring systems and the expanding International Fume Hood Challenge.
“These programs are a key part of I2SL’s mission to promote the sustainability of lab facilities worldwide and reduce lab energy use and emissions,” says Sharp. “With AIM, our goal is to catalyze the development of impactful performance improvement projects in lab facilities.”
He also emphasizes the role of competitions and community engagement: “We hope to bring together occupants, green labs staff, EH&S professionals, and facilities personnel on competition teams to engage in efficiency and safety improvement projects at their facilities.”
The webinar’s concluding message was clear: as more organizations adopt these tools, the lab community can expect faster progress, more consistent data, and a greater global impact.
This presentation provides useful information for lab owners, facility managers, architects, engineers, sustainability professionals, and others involved in lab operations or capital planning, particularly those evaluating HVAC upgrades, planning renovations, or assessing energy-efficiency investments. The webinar—now available to watch on demand at no cost—offers practical guidance on the AIM Report and Labs2Zero scorecards, along with early insights into the 2025–2026 Labs2Zero roadmap and how automated, lab-specific audits can support more informed planning and decision-making.
