Monday, August 3, 2009
Exhibit Hall NE & SE, Albuquerque Convention Center
Background/Question/Methods How can we use a facility originally designed to be self-sufficient more sustainably? The multi-faceted campus of Biosphere 2 includes the habitat and wilderness biomes, used for large scale experiments, as well the village used for tourists and conference services. Especially in the Southwest, where water use is always a hot issue, we as knowledgeable parties can't just talk about sustainability; we have to lead by example. Here we discuss efforts to educate the public about sustainability while we conduct our research and conferences more sustainably. The ability to modify environmental conditions inside Biosphere 2 makes it very useful for experimentation but the maintenance of these conditions can be very costly and require a lot of energy. As we manipulate the environment inside Biosphere 2 to study the effects of global climate change, we are doing our best to reduce our carbon footprint and resource use. The ultimate goal is to run the facility along with the conference services solely on renewable energy sources. We are currently developing a model system to predict the financial and environmental costs of any manipulation of the conditions inside Biosphere 2.
Results/Conclusions Biosphere 2 is becoming more sustainable using a variety of strategies. Researchers coming from the University of Arizona carpool on a shuttle to reduce emissions. The total energy use at Biosphere 2 has been lowered by 70% in recent years as a result of more efficient temperature control systems management, removal of selected panes of glass to allow passive diffusion of outside air, and convection fans to increase circulation. Also, we installed a rainwater harvesting system in the village where conference attendees stay. Two 2500 gallon tanks gather rainwater to supply a low flow toilet and a drip irrigation system. This is the first of many rainwater harvesting system examples for the public. These all lead up to harvesting rainwater from the Biosphere 2 structure itself to supply the water cooling tower. Rainwater could eliminate current use of well water and decrease the number of times the water in the system has to be replaced. Most recently we have purchased solar panels to be installed on the roofs of the village. We anticipate that these solar panels will reduce the total energy use by 15%.
Results/Conclusions Biosphere 2 is becoming more sustainable using a variety of strategies. Researchers coming from the University of Arizona carpool on a shuttle to reduce emissions. The total energy use at Biosphere 2 has been lowered by 70% in recent years as a result of more efficient temperature control systems management, removal of selected panes of glass to allow passive diffusion of outside air, and convection fans to increase circulation. Also, we installed a rainwater harvesting system in the village where conference attendees stay. Two 2500 gallon tanks gather rainwater to supply a low flow toilet and a drip irrigation system. This is the first of many rainwater harvesting system examples for the public. These all lead up to harvesting rainwater from the Biosphere 2 structure itself to supply the water cooling tower. Rainwater could eliminate current use of well water and decrease the number of times the water in the system has to be replaced. Most recently we have purchased solar panels to be installed on the roofs of the village. We anticipate that these solar panels will reduce the total energy use by 15%.