Penn Science Café: The Architecture of Sustainability

Penn Science Café With a summer marked by record-setting weather events around the globe, focus on the critical importance of sustainability is greater than ever. At Penn, labs are critical to house research into the sustainable energy solutions we need. At the same time, scientific labs have traditionally had big carbon footprints. Penn’s new Vagelos Laboratory for Energy Science and Technology, now under construction, has incorporated sustainability into its design as well as its mission, decreasing its carbon footprint by 80 percent. This special Climate Week Science Café event will feature University Architect Mark Kocent and Karen Goldberg, Vagelos Professor of Energy Research, discussing how Penn has addressed the challenge of constructing a state-of-the-art research facility that puts the purpose of the building—advancing sustainability—at the heart of its design.