Sustainability Solutions

Berkeley Lab freely shares its innovative solutions and strategies to help other organizations improve their environmental performance and accelerate sustainability efforts.

Reducing Energy, Water, & Waste in Operations

• Sustainable Operations Policy for reducing energy, water, waste, and greenhouse gases; and guiding purchasing, waste diversion, and site maintenance
• Energy and Water Management System, the Lab’s overarching program and strategy for reducing energy, water, and utility costs, is certified to ISO 50001.
• WasteGuide, an online resource to guide waste diversion, recycling, and responsible disposal
• Individual Action Guidance to promote sustainability at the Lab and beyond
• Staff Electric Vehicle Charging Program

Efficient Buildings

All of Berkeley Lab’s new buildings have been all-electric since 2015, and LEED Gold Certified since 2007.

• Sustainable Construction Policy & Implementation Guide instruct the Lab’s new construction and renovation projects
• Integrative Genomics Building showcases an all-electric, new construction project with numerous sustainability features, that is meeting its stretch targets for energy consumption
• Ongoing Building Commissioning (OCx), the Lab’s highly successful program for finding, achieving, and maintaining energy and water savings, and promoting optimal building performance
• Efficiency in High Performance Computing, best practices for energy and water efficiency at the Lab’s National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
• Lighting Projects, specific guidance for lighting upgrades to promote efficiency, standardization, and lower cost of maintenance

Measuring, Monitoring, & Reporting

• Data Analytics with Skyspark – The Lab’s integrated analytics platform for automated building systems monitoring and fault detection
• Sustainability Reporting – The Lab publicly reports performance on key sustainability metrics

Innovation & Collaboration

• Living Laboratory – The Lab’s sustainability team and scientific staff collaborate to make Lab operational data available for research, and to put cutting-edge research concepts into practice in Lab operations.