The greenest lab, up and running
The renovation of Harvard’s Sherman Fairchild Building may have seemed inconsequential to the casual observer because the exterior barely changed. However, as a result of a two-year demolition and reconstruction project to accommodate the Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Department (SCRB), the interior has been transformed into one of the University’s greenest and most efficient laboratory spaces. The project, the first to utilize Harvard’s 2009 Green Building Standards to guide project development, recently received the Faculty of Arts and Sciences’ (FAS) first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Commercial Interiors Platinum certification — the highest rating possible — from the U.S. Green Building Council. The certification follows the registration of Harvard’s 100th LEED green building project, which is the build-out of the laboratory for incoming Professor Daniel Nocera. “Laboratories are the most energy-intensive spaces on campus. As part of our goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2016, Harvard...