Facility Integrated Resource Management Produces Bottom-Line Results
Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. is a highly emulated model showing how companies can slash their energy costs, enhance efficiency, and boost sustainability by investing the necessary time, effort, and resources. Other companies look to Toyota as an example because it has created a strategic management approach that produces long-lasting, effective results.

Architectural and Engineering Design for Advanced Sustainable Research Labs
A rapid increase in the need for sustainable alternative energy technologies is driving new "cleantech" approaches to the design of modern research facilities. The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Alternative Fuel Vehicle Research Laboratory (AFVRL), designed by Madison, Wis.-based Flad & Associates, is a leading-edge example of how cleantech philosophy is changing the future of lab design in the alternative energy research sector. Cleantech, short for "clean technologies," is a strategy that focuses on improving the operational performance, productivity, and efficiency of products or services while reducing bottom line costs, energy consumption, and pollution.

Technology is Evolving to Meet New Research Demands
The ubiquitous HEPA (High-Efficiency Particulate Air) filter has evolved since it was introduced 40 years ago: New materials can be used as alternatives to the glass-fiber filter medium, for example, and housings have improved for ease of testing and maintenance. But the way these filters work remains largely the same.

Annual Testing Now Required
In February 2007, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and National Institutes of Health issued the Fifth Edition of the Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories (BMBL) Manual. Several substantive changes directly affect the use of HEPA filters in biocontainment facilities.

Variations Available in Housings, Dampers, and Configurations
HEPA filters have remained largely the same since they came on the market 40 years ago, though the standard glass medium can be compacted to fit a smaller space, and new filters can be custom-made of different media to address the needs of individual industries. The greatest number of options when installing a HEPA filter system is not in the filter itself, but in the way it is housed, how the ductwork is dampered, and how the system is configured within the laboratory and interstitial spaces. These options can alter the upfront cost by hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Part II Proper Planning Essential to Enhancing Return on Investment
A growing demand for emerging disease research capability and rapidly changing programs in the biocontainment industry is sparking a trend toward the construction of multi-pathogen, multi-use, and multi-protocol facilities.

Process Flows and Diagrams Prove Crucial to Project Success
As the term implies, operational-based planning of biocontainment facilities puts operational aspects--entry/exit protocols, emergency procedures, and regulatory compliance--at the center of the design process. By giving these factors center stage, rather than focusing on aesthetic, economic, or spatial considerations, designers ensure that the facility will function the way it needs to function, meet all pertinent regulations, and avoid costly redesigns--a particularly important consideration with such an expensive and highly regulated building type, says Wilfred Lach, principal at Stantec Architecture and architect of a new CL-3 laboratory at the Abbotsford Agriculture Centre in Abbotsford, British Columbia. (CL-3 is the Canadian equivalent of BSL-3Ag containment.)

Proper Planning Provides Increased Value and Enhanced Flexibility
The need for greater flexibility and a higher return on investment in BSL-3 and BSL-4 facilities are fueling a trend toward the construction of multi-pathogen, multi-protocol biocontainment labs.

Proper biosafety planning requires an understanding of the pathogen-inherent hazards and the protocol-inherent risks for the worker, the community, and the environment. It is imperative to manage and reduce all of the risks to a tolerable level.

Research Objectives and Risk are Major Drivers
"There are probably quite a few definitions for the term ‘integrated animal facility,'" says Steve Freson, principal and facility planner with Flad Architects, "especially defining the animal facility when operating under high containment.