Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

This facility features the following green attributes:
Green Power

Mechanical Upgrades

National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL)

Total Facility Area: 83,503 gross square feet (GSF)
Estimated Personnel: 107 persons
Energy Consumption: 49,592,812,680 Btu per year
Btu Per GSF per Year: 593,905
Total Water Consumption: 7,248,624 gallons per year
Gallons per GSF per year: 86.8

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

Description

This facility is the Office of Research and Development's National Health and Environmental Effects Research Laboratory (NHEERL) headquarters. The building houses EPA's Reproductive Toxicology Division (RTD), which brings together an unparalleled combination of expertise to study the health effects of environmental contaminants such as pesticides, air and drinking-water pollutants, and hazardous wastes on all stages of the life cycle.

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

Unique Environmental Features

Energy Conservation

In FY 2006, the facility reduced energy use by 6 percent compared to FY 2005 after replacing its cooling towers and resetting temperature set points.
In Fall 2003, EPA completed an energy audit for NHEERL, which included recommendations to recommission the building.

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 NHEERL, 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 annually in the form of renewable energy certificates. The contract helped support the generation of biomass power from paper pulp facilities in Port Wentworth, Georgia. The purchase offset 100 percent of the electricity consumption at all of EPA's RTP facilities, including NHEERL.

Water Conservation

NHEERL replaced its cooling towers in FY 2006, which helped reduce overall water consumption by two million gallons compared to FY 2005.

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/nheerl/