Situated on Mount Desert Island overlooking Frenchman Bay and perched on the steep granite cliffs of Acadia National Park lies the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory (MDIBL). Founded in 1898 as a summer school and research laboratory for biology students, MDIBL in Bar Harbor, Maine, has grown into a full-scale research facility that operates both seasonal and year-round studies. Internationally renowned, MDIBL features 10 separate laboratory buildings with a total of 32 research units and is home to some of the most-advanced marine studies in the world.

MDIBL has grown considerably over the past six or seven years, according to Jerilyn Bowers, the laboratory’s director of development and public affairs. It is that recent growth that prompted laboratory officials to push for the construction of a new building that could accommodate the growing number of researchers flocking to the site each year. “Since 1999, we have seen the number of full-time employees at the lab grow from nine to 43, and our budget has increased tenfold in that same time period,” Bowers says. “With such a dramatic increase in resources and staff, the need for another laboratory was obvious.”

The lab’s commitment to low-impact development, coupled with its mission to preserve the environment, made the decision to construct an environmentally friendly building an easy choice. The new building was designed according to the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC) Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards, the nationally accepted benchmark for the design, construction and operation of high-performance green buildings.

Design for the new building began in August 2005 when a green design charrette was formed, consisting of the project’s general contractor and construction manager, a team of architects, representatives from MDIBL as well as the lab’s commissioning agent. The group, led by Richard Graves, a former architect at WBRC Architects in Bangor, Maine, worked together to develop a plan and a building that would combine practicality, sustainability, energy efficiency and environmental friendliness.

“With this type of integrated design approach, the role of the architect changed from soloist to conductor,” Graves says. “It was interesting to see people from every part of the project put their heads together and come up with interesting and innovative ideas. It would have been difficult to develop the plan we did without the input from everyone that took part in the initial design.”

Those involved with the project estimate that the building could reach gold LEED status, the second highest ranking a building can receive within the LEED rating system. In order to achieve a gold certification, a building must accumulate at least 39 LEED points.

One of the most energy-efficient components of the new laboratory is its roof system, which features more than 8 inches of polyisocyanurate insulation. Manufactured by Hunter Panels, a local company headquartered in Portland, Maine, the building’s polyiso insulation offers an excellent R-value that will help lower its heating and cooling costs while reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with the operation of mechanical equipment.

“We put a lot of thought and consideration into the roof system because we realized early on that a quality rooftop can drastically reduce the building’s energy costs,” says Randy Poulton, a member of the green design charrette and vice president at Nickerson & O’Day, the project’s general contractor and construction manager. “We selected Hunter’s polyiso insulation because it offers one of the industry’s highest R-values and it is manufactured locally -- two very important factors in regards to the environment and the building’s final LEED rating.”

According to a study conducted by the Polyisocyanurate Insulation Manufacturers Association (PIMA), polyiso insulation offers a higher R-value per square foot than expanded and extruded polystyrene insulation -- two popular alternatives in the roofing marketplace. The PIMA study also found that polyiso offers a lower installed cost than those two products due to its higher insulating value and the subsequent need for less material on each job.

The MDIBL laboratory project began in January 2007 when Nickerson & O’Day (NOD) started to prepare the site for construction by blasting out more than 1,500 yards of ledge. According to Poulton, the site had to be blasted in order to sink the first floor of the building into the ground so its finished height would not exceed the local building code requirements, which feature a 35-foot height restriction for all buildings. “We could have kept everything at ground level, but then we would have had to install a flat roof, and we really did not want to do that,” Poulton says.

Because it was a LEED project, Poulton said the site preparation was quite different than on most projects. “Keeping in mind the environmental friendliness of the project, we selected a building site that was not heavily forested, which meant we did not have to cut down too many trees,” Poulton says. “The trees we did cut down were sawn into timber and recycled into the construction of the building or chipped up and burned to create electricity.”

After the site preparation was complete, contractors began erecting the building. NOD self-performed some portions of the construction, but it subcontracted many of jobs, including the roof installation.

To install the Hunter Panels polyiso insulation and the rest of the roof, NOD turned to Roof Systems of Maine, a local contractor from Bangor. Roof Systems has been installing quality rooftops in Maine and New Hampshire for more than 30 year, and their experience with polyiso insulation made them a perfect choice for the job. “We install thousands of squares of polyiso insulation every year so we are quite familiar with the most-current installation techniques and procedures,” said Tom Turlo, Roof Systems assistant vice president and project manager for the MDIBL project. “Polyiso is the only roofing insulation product we use because we want to offer our customers the best insulating value for their money, and polyiso is the best there is.”

Roof Systems installed 7,800 square feet of Hunter’s insulation products to the 8,700-square-foot shingled portion of the building’s roof. They began by laying down a 4-inch layer of standard polyiso over top of the lab’s 22-gauge steel roof deck. Next, they installed a 4.5-inch layer of Hunter’s innovative H-Shield-NB, staggering the seams from the first layer to reduce thermal bridging and further increase the rooftop’s overall energy efficiency. Consisting of a 4-inch layer of polyiso laminated to a heavy-duty, 5/8-inch piece of oriented strand board, H-Shield-NB eliminates the need to install an additional nailer on top of the insulation before attaching the finished roofing material.

Hunter’s 4-inch polyiso provides an R-value of 25, while the 4.5-inch H-Shield-NB offers an additional R-value of 25.6. Combined, the two layers of insulation created a rooftop with an R-value of more than 50, which is more than enough to help the laboratory reduce its heating and cooling costs.

Besides energy efficiency, Hunter’s polyiso also features other properties that make it good for the environment and good for the lab. The H-Shield NB used for this project featured OSB that was certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), a nonprofit organization devoted to encouraging responsible management of the world’s forests. Lumber with the FSC label, such as the OSB used on the laboratory’s rooftop, was harvested in a sustainable manner with little impact on the environment.

Other sustainable attributes of Hunter’s polyiso include a manufacturing process that features zero ozone-depleting potential (ODP), is CFC-free and meets all applicable EPA standards. Hunter’s polyiso also features an FM Class 1 uplift rating and UL Class A fire rating, resulting in a rooftop that provides superior protection against anything Mother Nature has to offer.

In order to fasten the insulation to the rooftop, Roof Systems utilized specialized 10-inch fasteners developed specifically for use with Hunter’s H-Shield-NB, Cool-Vent and Cool-Vent II. The fasteners offer increased pullout resistance and are FM approved. They do not require the use of washers or fastener plates, which reduces costs and speeds up installation. The 10-inch screws were installed through the H-Shield-NB and standard polyiso and attached to the building’s metal decking.

After all of the insulation was fastened to the deck, Roof Systems installed a layer of ice and water shield over the entire roof surface and then covered it with a 50-year asphalt shingle. They completed the roof installation by installing a 24-gauge white Kynar-coated flashing material that provides a long-term finish and increases the sustainability of the entire project.

The roof is not the only factor in this building’s high eco rating. It also features double-paned, low-E windows, soy-based foam wall insulation and state-of-the-art mechanical equipment that further increase the building’s environmental friendliness and energy-efficient performance.

The new 18,000-square-foot building was officially opened in July, just in time for the summertime surge of incoming researchers. A large grand-opening event was held to honor the new state-of-the-art lab space as well as the environmental friendliness of the building. In attendance were a number of local and national dignitaries, including both of Maine’s U.S. Sens. Olympia J. Snowe and Susan M. Collins.

In a letter to the lab, Collins commended on the group’s efforts in constructing a building with an emphasis on the environment and noted that its LEED certification has raised the bar for future building projects in the state of Maine. She went on to state that Hunter Panels’ roof insulation was one of the most energy-efficient components of the entire project.

A similar letter from Snowe to the lab echoed Collins’ comments. “Use of FSC-certified lumber, high-recycled content steel, soy-based spray insulation and roof insulation with an R-value of 50 are just a few examples of how MDI Lab is striving to improve our communities and protect our natural resources. All partners in the concept, design and building of this new facility should be proud of their accomplishment as they help set the standard for new construction throughout our great state.”

Whether this laboratory ignites a wave of green construction throughout Maine is yet to be seen, but one thing is for certain: MDIBL It is one of the most advanced, energy-efficient laboratories in the world. And, while there were a number of contributing factors, that superiority starts at the top with premium polyiso insulation.