The world’s most innovative scientific discoveries, from lifesaving vaccines to gene therapies, are often born in laboratory buildings. Typically fortress-like structures designed to safeguard research, these spaces can disconnect people from each other and their neighborhoods. They also often lack adaptable infrastructure to meet future needs, including climate change. 325 Binney Street, a leading-edge life science development and home to a biotechnology company, transforms the future of laboratory buildings. Located in an internationally recognized innovation district, the building provides its scientists a dynamic space to advance their best work.
To address climate change, the project is designed to be the most sustainable lab building in Cambridge, the world’s preeminent biotech hub. It upholds the building owner, operator, and developer’s rigorous decarbonization approach, that of Alexandria Real Estate Equities, Inc., including in energy efficiency, reduction in fossil fuel use, and renewable energy. The project is on track to have the lowest fossil fuel consumption compared to similarly sized commercial lab buildings in the city. The project has an Energy Use Intensity (EUI) of 135 kBtu/SF-year, which is considered best-in-class energy performance for large, humidified lab buildings.
The facility offers ultra-efficient, laboratory infrastructure, which is targeting energy efficiency exceeding energy code requirements in effect when the design was approved, reduced fossil fuel use through the implementation of a geothermal system, and 100% renewable electricity, resulting in an estimated 97% emissions reduction relative to the MA 2020 Stretch Code baseline. The project, which recently achieved LEED Platinum (core and shell and TI), is designed to meet many major sustainability certifications: LEED Zero Energy, WiredScore Platinum, and Fitwel Life Science.
Through this incredible commitment to sustainability, 325 Binney Street was designed as a premium platform to support discoveries in life science. At the heart of this goal was a focus on the health and well-being of the building’s occupants.