When you walked into your lab today, did you notice your environment? Or did you take for granted the open, airy spaces, floor-to-ceiling windows, fabulous views of the outdoors, art work and potted plants?

We have written previously on LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design), the U.S. Green Building Council’s (USGBC) certification program for green buildings. In this column, the Safety Guys will look at some of the potential health and safety issues involved when building green.

Want to build a lab? Think you don't have the space or the funds to do so? Think again! You can place high-technology research space in your current office building. All it takes is a good plan up front and creative thinking from an integrated team.

Over the last decade, traditional office and R&D designs have failed to serve new business models and employment arrangements; the results have been visible at the bottom line of balance sheets. The real bottom line is this: Better workplaces make for better business.

Matthew Gudorf, campus energy manager with the Facilities Management group at University of California, Irvine, (UCI) discusses the Smart Labs program developed at UCI, which aims to reduce overall energy consumption by 50 percent.

Understanding basic acoustic space design criteria and strategies that building managers, users, planners, and designers can use to recognize and address the acoustic needs of laboratory spaces is deeply important for collaboration and efficiency.