From the Lab to the Marketplace

LBNL's Broader Role in the Buildings Energy Arena

Although best known for our R&D and technology spin-offs to industry, LBNL's buildings energy research programs are distinguished in other areas. LBNL contributes technical input to public policy issues such as global warming, works with utilities on new paradigms for energy planning, examines the effect of the indoor environment on health and comfort, helps the government manage its own facilities more efficiently, and addresses energy problems both locally and internationally.

To foster the adoption and use of energy-efficient technologies in buildings, the Laboratory relies on its information and technology transfer program. The program ensures that research results are transferred quickly to utilities, major builders, and real estate developers by emphasizing strong working relationships with key professional, trade association, and research organizations. These groups serve as intermediaries and brokers in reaching manufacturers, consumers, and the fragmented building-sector industries. In addition, LBNL publishes research results on the Internet.

Education is central to LBNL's strategy for promoting energy efficiency. To this end, the Laboratory has a relationship to a major university (the University of California at Berkeley) that is unique among the national laboratories. Dozens of faculty, staff, and students from a variety of disciplines work in LBNL's energy-efficiency programs. Some graduates stay on at LBNL while others move into industry or the public sector.

The World Wide Web. . .
The Center for Building Science now has a World Wide Web (WWW) home page easily accessible from the LBNL home page. The WWW makes it possible to send and receive text, video, audio, and all types of graphics (including photographs) over the Internet. Mosaic is the user-friendly interface that makes it possible to view and manage this information. Through WWW and the Mosaic browser, Internet users can access LBNL's hypertext documents, gopher databases, library catalog, publications list, and Quicktime movies. All that's required is a networked computer (Mac, PC, or UNIX) that runs Mosaic. The WWW address (universal resource locator or URL) is "http://eetd.lbl.gov/Building_Science.html".

From the Center's home page, users can view, save, and print text and graphics that describe ongoing projects at the Center, browse all the issues of our newsletter, and view and perform keyword searches on the Center's publication list. All information is linked through hypertext, making it easy to find related topics or articles.

After the Cold War, in a Warming World
Partnering with Electric and Gas Utilities
Enhancing Indoor Air Quality
Government Partnerships
Providing a Helping Hand to States
International Activities

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