Energy-Intensive Life Sciences Labs Haven’t Discovered Transparent ESG Reporting Lab spaces, one of the fastest-growing classes of commercial real estate, can be energy hogs, using 10 times more than similarly sized offices. While major developers say they’re trying to improve sustainability, details on those efforts are sparse. Efforts to reduce energy usage and invest in more sustainable, energy-efficient spaces to experiment and discover are growing as the industry booms, including all-electric labs and on-site energy generation. But reporting around carbon footprints and longer-term strategies to cut emissions from existing buildings can be seen as lacking. “The bottom-line metric is how much carbon you’re putting in the atmosphere,” said Matthew Fickett, a managing principal at HDR Boston and an expert in sustainable lab construction. “If you were to buy a car, it's nice that it won a bunch of awards. It's very cool. It's got a great warranty. But you want to know how many miles per gallon it gets. To pick an absolute metric for labs, just how much carbon are you using per SF? There's no A for effort, because the climate doesn't give you an A for effort.” 
Developers are putting forth good effort, Fickett said, and he doesn’t believe any firm or company is dodging the issue. But lab buildings are very complicated, and it can be especially challenging to limit energy consumption in a research space. “No one wants to be the one who wrote a regulation…  Read the full story here. | | |
