Successful Cleanroom Design Strategies in Today’s LEED World

The design, engineering, and construction of high technology manufacturing space is technically unforgiving, requires significant financial investment, and demands careful attention to energy and natural resource usage. Coupled with a client’s desire to construct a LEED Gold certified 230,000 square foot (21,500 square meters) clean manufacturing plant, the stakes rise. This article will examine the process

GE Healthcare, its designers and construction team undertook to successfully take home the Gold, while reviewing some lessons learned. GE Healthcare, as a global leader in developing and manufacturing cutting edge medical diagnostic equipment that also delivers significant energy savings, was committed from the outset to building a more sustainable Digital X-ray clean manufacturing facility in North Greenbush, New York. GE is known globally for its ecomagination program, which the company characterizes as consistent with its mission to earn the best possible returns for shareowners by developing solutions that improve energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact. With strong leadership from GE, all team members were focused on sustainable design as a primary objective. An owner wholly committed to designing and obtaining LEED certification is a base requirement for project success.

From the beginning, the team concentrated on integrating cost effective, sustainable components that would carry through the architectural and engineering design phase and into the construction program, while providing functionality during the building’s occupancy phases. Operational needs and programming requirements were extensively assessed, with energy requirements defined for each space.

GE invested more than $130,000,000 (excluding production equipment) to build the facility. The cost of the sustainable and renewable energy features equaled $7.00 per square foot, or 1.6% more than conventional design. GE Healthcare anticipates the payback period for these sustainability costs to be 2.1 years.

The facility is designed to increase energy efficiency by 27% compared to a baseline building in minimal compliance with ASHRAE 90.1-2004. GE should realize combined energy savings of more than $750,000 annually. Projected annual electrical power savings of 8.6 million kWh and energy fossil savings of more than 6,800 MMBtu were realized as a result of the integrated engineering design. These annual power/electrical energy savings are equivalent to 800 homes and reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to 448 automobiles.