By building a research laboratory to develop technologies to reduce the earth's carbon footprint, the Georgia Institute of Technology hopes both to help solve a nagging environmental issue and to provide a construction industry model for the production of "no-frills" net-zero energy-use buildings.

The $22.4-million Carbon Neutral Energy Solutions Laboratory in Atlanta, targeting completion this fall, will develop technologies aimed at reducing global warming, such as carbon sequestration.

From the start, though, the university faced an ironic twist. On a square-foot basis, labs can use up to 10 times more energy than a standard office building, according to the project's architect-mechanical engineer, HDR Architecture.

The new lab had the potential to be a carbon hog.