Activities of the National Institutes of Health relating to energy efficiency and pollution prevention

Abstract

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is one of the world's premier biomedical research centers. Although NIH owns and operates more than 1,300 acres and 197 buildings across the country, the main campus is in Bethesda, Maryland. This campus consists of over 312 acres and 75 laboratories and other buildings, which consume vast amounts of energy. Aware of the NIH role in setting biomedical research agendas and priorities, its administrators strive to set good examples in energy efficiency and pollution prevention. Three current projects are presented as "best practices" examples of meeting the stated commitment of NIH to leadership in environmental stewardship: a) design and current construction of a 250-bed clinical research hospital designed to allow conversion of patient care units to research laboratories and vice-versa; b) design and construction of a six-story research laboratory that combines energy-saving innovations with breakthroughs in research technologies; and c) a massive, $200-million modernization of the campus utility infrastructure that involves generation systems for steam and chilled water and distribution systems for chilled water, steam, potable water, electricity, communications and computer networking, compressed air, and natural gas. Based on introduction of energy-efficiency measures, millions of dollars in savings for energy needs are projected; already the local electric utility has granted several million dollars in rebates. The guiding principles of NIH environmental stewardship help to ensure that energy conservation measures maximize benefits versus cost and also balance expediency with efficiency within available funding resources. This is a committee report for the Leadership Conference: Biomedical Research and the Environment held 1-2 November 1999 at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.