Most laboratory buildings in our country use significantly more water per square foot than stan-dard commercial buildings do, primarily to meet their larger cooling and process loads. This greater need also provides laboratories with more opportu-nities to make cost-effective improvements in water efficiency, especially with respect to the amount of water they use in cooling towers and for special pro-cess equipment. A laboratory’s water efficiency can also be improved by making a few changes in other types of equipment, such as water treatment and sterilizing systems, as described in this guide. And alternative sources of water can often be effectively integrated into a laboratory’s operations.