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Local Projects: Bedford, MA

Our Bedford campus (300,000 square feet) houses our worldwide Bioprocess R&D center, as well as our Strategic and Pilot Membrane Manufacturing Membrane Pilot operations. Close to 400 people work at this campus. The campus is located approximately 30 minutes outside of Boston, and right along the Minuteman Bike path, which many employees walk or jog on during breaks.

Green Building

The Bedford campus presents strong examples of green building design at Millipore. We recently demolished and rebuilt our Bioprocess Worldwide R&D Center (a 110,000 square foot laboratory and office building) and renovated 40,000 square feet of office and cafeteria space. Innovative features for these projects include the following:

  • Control panels to optimize lighting use based on occupancy and time of day
  • Heat recovery/exchange systems for exhaust air
  • Bamboo floors used instead of hardwood
  • Pond designed to provide storm water management and protect the surrounding wetlands natural habitat
  • Added 40,000 square feet of green space
  • Increased natural lighting to reduce employee fatigue and electricity use
  • High efficiency glass on building exterior to reduce heating and cooling costs
  • White membrane roof that reflects the sun’s rays to minimize heat absorption
  • Boardwalk built through the wetlands with educational signs about the local ecology encourages employees to walk between buildings.
  • Bicycle and storage and changing rooms to encourage bicycle commuting
  • Laboratory exhaust hoods automatically shut down when sashes are closed to preserve conditioned air

Our target for these projects is to improve energy efficiency by 25%, saving as much as $1 million/year in utility costs. We don’t yet have final data, but the savings appear to be substantial.

We have decided to not pursue formal USBGC LEED certification for our R&D center project, although we considered those guidelines throughout our planning process. We are planning to obtain LEED certification for the new Pilot Plant project, which begins in 2008.

Future Plans


Stairs built with bamboo used at our Bioprocess R&D Center in Bedford, MA.

We plan to include green features in future projects as well, such as the renovation of two older buildings in Bedford currently housing labs, offices and a pilot plant.

Currently planned efforts, along with some listed above, include the following:

  • Preserve existing structural system by reusing existing steel columns, beams and concrete floors
  • Diversion of at least 50% and ideally 75% of construction and demolition waste from landfills
  • Sourcing as many building materials and furniture as possible from within 500 miles, to minimize transport energy while supporting the local economy
  • “Flushing out” of air handling system sufficiently in advance of project launch to improve indoor air quality
  • Bicycle storage and changing rooms, to encourage bicycle commuting (the facility is right along the Minuteman Bike Trail)
  • Dedication of 5% of the total parking spaces to low-emission and fuel-efficient vehicles in a preferred location

We anticipate completion of these projects by 2010.

See Green Building for more information about our general approach in this area.