The Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) three sustainability awards for its accomplishments in the field of waste reduction and energy efficiency.
The DOE Energy Management Award was awarded to ORNL for its Green Information Technology initiative. The initiative was a group effort that led to a reduction in the energy consumption of ORNL by 8.1 billion Btu through deployment of a computer power management software application. The team effort helped the lab save $143,043 in the fiscal year, 2010.
ORNL's Sustainable Campus Initiative received DOE’s Environmental Sustainability award (EStar) honorable mention for an overarching structure for integrating sustainability into the business and operational processes at the lab. As part of the initiative, the lab acquired electric, flex-fuel and hybrid vehicles for expanding its fleet. It also built solar-assisted charging stations for recharging its electric vehicles. ORNL built over a million square feet of laboratory and office space that was LEED-certified.
ORNL implemented modifications in its lab building 1059 to achieve the Gold level certification for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Existing Buildings (LEED-EB). Roofing changes, low flow plumbing, sensors and controls were added. The lab documented the efforts undertaken by the planning and design team for achieving the LEED-EB certification. ORNL intends to achieve LEED-EB certification for at least 10 of its buildings by the year 2014. The documentation done for lab building 1059 will aid ORNL in its LEED-EB achievement efforts for the other buildings. DOE awarded ORNL an EStar award for the documenting efforts.
Source: http://www.ornl.gov/