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Sandia aims to lead in the transformation toward a sustainable, carbon-neutral environment while increasing mission effectiveness, resource reliability, and resource security.
For Sandia, sustainability means making balanced environmental, social, and economic decisions about developing, operating, and maintaining its sites to meet the human and mission needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. Our Laboratories are part of a larger community; the impacts of sustainable development on our sites extend beyond the physical boundaries. To that end, Sandia is actively engaged in finding and implementing innovative, sustainable solutions for its sites and the nation. Learn more about our commitment to environmental responsibility.
As part of our climate security efforts, Sandia will model the way forward in site sustainability. We are developing plans to achieve net-zero emissions at the Sandia Albuquerque and Sandia Livermore sites, including decarbonizing our energy supply, reducing mission-critical emissions, and incorporating sustainability into building renovations.
Executive Order (EO) 14057 outlines an ambitious path to achieve net-zero emissions across Federal operations by 2050. In support of this path, each agency is required to develop a strategic plan to address the following goals:
Sandia’s executive management offices and larger laboratory complex are located on Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Covering over 26 square miles and 6.9 million gross square feet of buildings, the site serves more than 13,000 employees. Scope 1 emissions account for almost half of the greenhouse gas emissions and another 40% are considered scope 2 emissions.
For the Albuquerque site, we are developing a strategy to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045. Our current focus is identifying strategies for reducing scope 1 and 2 emissions. Almost 40% of the scope 1 emissions are fugitive emissions related to our R&D efforts. The most common fugitive emission at Sandia is SF6, a greenhouse gas used in electrical insultation that has a global warming potential 22,000 times greater than carbon dioxide. Strategies for mitigating the release of this potent greenhouse gas are currently being studied and implemented.
In an effort to decarbonize our energy supply, Sandia is partnering with Kirtland Air Force Base (KAFB), the Federal Aviation Administration, and the City of Albuquerque to explore siting for a large concentrating solar power plant to provide resilient energy to both Sandia and KAFB.
Sandia opened our second main site in California’s Livermore Valley in 1956. From a small group of employees, the Livermore site has grown to 1,600 employees and 71 facilities across 410 contiguous acres. Infrastructure at this site is shared in part with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
Sandia is developing a vision to achieve net-zero emissions at the Livermore, California site by 2040. The vision has four main components:
To achieve net-zero emissions and resiliency at our Livermore site, Sandia will draw on diverse technologies, many of which contain capabilities derived from Sandia R&D, including:
Sandia Albuquerque
Casiano Armenta
ccarmen@sandia.gov
Sandia Livermore
Howard Royer
FY22 Site Sustainability Plan