Building for Sustainability
Building for Sustainability
When Bruker was looking to upgrade two of its expanding BioSpin sites in Rheinstetten and Ettlingen, Germany, the company took the opportunity to increase its sustainability profile from the outset.
With the two facilities separated by only 5 km, Bruker opted to consolidate them into one Centre of Excellence for magnetic resonance and preclinical imaging solutions.
The 'Bruker Campus', situated on the company's Ettlingen site, represents the company's largest investment and includes the construction of two new state of the art laboratories, refurbishing existing buildings, adding green spaces, and upgrading to the latest in analytical technology, while keeping top of mind the health, safety and wellbeing of workers and good environmental practices.
New Laboratories
ISO lab
Bruker BioSpin's new ISO laboratory is ISO 17025-compliant to allow the company to perform tests and calibrations either as an independent service for its customers or to ensure quality as part of its own manufacturing processes. The BioSpin division will primarily use this laboratory for quality control purposes such as determining the authenticity of products such as honey, wine, beer, olive oil and juice.
S2 lab
The S2 lab is a clinical laboratory for Bruker BioSpins's applied, industrial and chemical division (AIC), where customer samples are prepared and analyzed. It has been built to comply with EU Directive 2000/54/EC to protect staff from the risks associated with exposure to biological agents, particularly micro-organisms. Laboratories handling biological agents must take specific protective measures and are categorized by four defined protection levels, with protection level 4 having the highest requirements.
To ensure the health and safety of workers, each protection level area is spatially defined and marked with the protection level designation and the biohazard symbol, and access to the different protection levels is restricted to named employees.
Environmentally friendly Initiatives
Whether refurbishing or constructing new buildings at the Ettlingen site, Bruker has made good on its commitment to protect the environment and the wellbeing of its staff by incorporating initiatives such as:
- Access control: Installing a new state-of-the-art access control system - technology that has already proved successful at Bruker sites in Switzerland and France. Colleagues working across the three sites can now easily and securely access the buildings in each location.
- Helium reliquefaction: Installing this system increases storage and recovery capacities for helium. · Heat supply: Centralizing the heat supply and changing it from oil to gas, reducing the site's CO2 emissions by 34%.
- Cooling supply: Centralizing the cooling supply has made the site more energy efficient and environmentally friendly. It reduces CO2 emissions, increases the safety of the plant, and provides a highly reliable cooling supply for production and application activities.
- Electricity supply: Completely renewing the electricity supply on campus has reduced consumption levels while increasing supply security.
- Compressed air: Centralizing the compressed air system minimizes energy consumption by 70%, and hot water on the campus can be generated by heat recovery from the compressor.
- Door replacement: Replacing various doors and gates will make a 15% improvement in energy efficiency, increase fire safety and increase accessibility.
- Lighting upgrade: Replacing old lighting (approximately 300 lamps) with LED lamps reduces energy consumption.
- New standardized workplaces: Refurbishing the main building at the Ettlingen site delivers a new employee-friendly workplace. High, adjustable tables and ergonomic chairs, centralized meeting rooms and new breakout rooms are available to all employees.
Bruker's decision to develop one modern and attractive site fit for a technology-leading, progressive 21st century organisation brings different teams together under one roof, resulting in improved and coordinated processes, stronger internal communications and a new collaborative approach. The Campus Plaza - a specially designed green space in the middle of the new Centre of Excellence - offers workers a space in which to relax or host creative open-air meetings. Building sustainability into Bruker's Ettlingen site is "a real innovation project" for the company.