Sustainability reporting is now central to vivarium operations—alongside animal welfare, research integrity, compliance and budget oversight. Among the most critical decisions is your facility’s caging infrastructure:

Here’s a number that should make every facility director uncomfortable: your vivarium is consuming energy at a rate 7 to 9 times higher than a standard office building—473 kBtu per square foot annually¹. And it gets worse. That vivarium occupying just 13% of your building’s floor space? It’s eating up roughly 35% of your total energy budget¹.

When Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, research facilities faced catastrophic losses as backup systems failed and decades of irreplaceable data disappeared. This harsh reality underscores a fundamental truth: even the most sophisticated research operations remain vulnerable to unexpected disruptions that can destroy years of scientific progress in a matter of hours. Contingency planning in animal care facilities extends far beyond regulatory compliance—it's abou