Case Study
MilliporeSigma - Sheboygan Falls Laboratory Building
MilliporeSigma stands as a cornerstone of the global life sciences industry, partnering with researchers, pharmaceutical developers, and biotechnology innovators to advance scientific discovery and medical breakthroughs. The organisation supplies critical materials, analytical instruments, and specialist services to laboratories worldwide, supporting everything from fundamental research to commercial-scale pharmaceutical manufacturing.
Their Sheboygan Falls campus in Wisconsin represents a major North American production hub, housing sophisticated laboratory facilities where scientists develop and test products that will ultimately support drug discovery, diagnostics, and academic research across the globe. The laboratory building selected for this pioneering EndoTherm trial encompasses a complex environment combining analytical laboratories, quality control testing areas, research and development spaces, and supporting infrastructure. Unlike simple office or warehouse heating, laboratory facilities demand extraordinarily precise environmental control to ensure experimental accuracy, protect sensitive instrumentation, maintain regulatory compliance, and safeguard valuable research materials and biological samples that could be irreplaceable.
Find out more in our article relating to this case study – What MilliporeSigma’s EndoTherm Projects Reveal About Energy Efficiency in Life Sciences Manufacturing
Why This Laboratory Proved an Ideal Proving Ground
MilliporeSigma’s decision to pilot EndoTherm in their laboratory building reflected the organisation’s rigorous, science-based approach to operational improvements. The facility’s sophisticated sub-metering infrastructure and comprehensive historical consumption data spanning over two years enabled precise measurement and verification following IPMVP protocols. Laboratory buildings operate with exceptional consistency compared to commercial spaces—climate control systems run continuously to maintain stable conditions regardless of occupancy, creating ideal conditions for evaluating heating efficiency improvements without the confounding variables present in buildings with variable schedules. The success of this initial 61-month pilot directly informed MilliporeSigma’s subsequent decision to expand EndoTherm implementation to their warehouse buildings, demonstrating the organisation’s methodical approach to validating new technologies before broader deployment.
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Laboratory Facility Heating Challenges
Precision environmental control for experimental integrity: Research laboratories require extraordinarily tight temperature tolerances to ensure reproducible results, protect delicate instruments, and maintain stability of reference standards and biological materials, making any efficiency measure that could compromise environmental stability completely unacceptable regardless of potential cost savings.
Continuous operation with minimal seasonal variation: Unlike commercial buildings that can reduce heating during unoccupied periods, laboratories typically maintain consistent conditions 24/7/365 to support ongoing experiments, automated equipment, and stored materials, resulting in massive baseline energy consumption with limited opportunity for conventional demand reduction strategies.
Regulatory compliance and quality system requirements: Pharmaceutical and life science facilities operate under stringent Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and quality standards that mandate documented environmental controls, requiring any system modifications to undergo validation protocols and demonstrate they won’t impact product quality or regulatory compliance.
High air change rates and specialised ventilation demands: Laboratory buildings require intensive ventilation to manage chemical fumes, maintain clean room conditions, and ensure researcher safety, with once-through air systems creating enormous heating loads as conditioned air is continuously exhausted and replaced with fresh outdoor air requiring tempering.
Capital-intensive infrastructure limiting retrofit options: Modern laboratory buildings represent enormous capital investments with complex, integrated building management systems, making facilities managers extremely risk-averse regarding modifications that could disrupt operations, void warranties, or necessitate expensive recommissioning of sophisticated control systems.
EndoTherm’s installation delivered substantial benefits for MilliporeSigma, during the significant pilot period the lab saved over 208,000kg CO2e, proving that EndoTherm can play a crucial role in helping industry meet their environmental commitments and reduce energy consumption all without compromising operational performance. This GHG reduction is equivalent to:
