Chapel Hill, North Carolina

This facility features the following green attributes:
Green Power
Water Management Plan
Re-commissioned

Human Studies Facility

Total Facility Area: 136,786 gross square feet (GSF)
Estimated Personnel: 120 persons
Energy Consumption: 99,952,237,576 Btu per year
Btu per GSF per Year: 730,720
Total Water Consumption: 1,816,000 gallons per year
Gallons per GSF per year: 13.3

All energy and water data are reported as of FY 2008.

Description

The Human Studies Division (HSD) conducts clinical research and studies on the causes and spread of diseases to improve the understanding of human health risks associated with environmental pollution. HSD is part of the National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) within EPA's Office of Research and Development (ORD). The division comprises approximately 55 federal employees and is located on the campus of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC). UNC's Center for Environmental Medicine, Asthma, and Lung Biology has a cooperative agreement with HSD and is co-located in the facility.

In addition to this facility, EPA occupies several other buildings in the Research Triangle Park area, including:

Unique Environmental Features

Energy Conservation

In July 2003, EPA completed an energy audit, which included recommendations to recommission the building. EPA initiated minor aspects of the recommissioning in late summer 2004, and by December 2005, three of five air handling units (AHUs) had been rehabilitated and upgraded. In FY 2005, EPA assigned additional operations and maintenance (O&M) staff to this building to assist with a backlog of routine and preventative maintenance issues. Energy use has dropped significantly because of these efforts, with the Human Studies facility reducing energy use 12.5 percent in FY 2006 from FY 2005. EPA completed the design for the two remaining, largest AHUs in May 2007 and plans to award a contract for the implementation of one of the AHU system improvements by the end of FY 2007. Although the estimate was too high to fund the project, EPA is considering an energy savings performance contract with the University of North Carolina to fund the project.

Green Power

In FY 2008, EPA continued to support the renewable energy market by purchasing more than 212 million kilowatt hours (kWh) of green power through two separate Agencywide blanket contracts for renewable energy certificates (RECs), or “green tags,” from Sterling Planet, Luminant Energy Company, and FPL Energy . These purchases allowed EPA to offset 100 percent of electricity consumption for FY 2008 at the Human Studies facility, as well as many other EPA facilities across the Agency. Procured through the Defense Energy Support Center, these contracts support renewable energy generation from wind, biomass, and landfill gas resources in nine states.
On November 1, 2004, EPA entered into a three-year agreement with Unicoi Energy Services, to purchase 100 million kilowatt hours of green power in the form of renewable energy certificates annually. The contract helps support the generation of biomass power from paper pulp facilities in Port Wentworth, Georgia. The purchase offsets 100 percent of the electricity consumption at all of EPA's RTP facilities, including the Human Studies Facility.

Water Conservation

In February 2009, EPA completed a Water Management Plan for the RTP Human studies laboratory (PDF) (27 pp, 1005K, About PDF).

For More Information

Steve VanHorn (vanhorn.steve@epa.gov)
U.S. EPA
Mail Code: C604-02
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711
Phone: (919) 541-5446

Web site: www.epa.gov/rtp