Join us for our next edition of our Green Talk Series. We are very excited to have Dr. Martine Ballinger speak about the successes and challenges of the Green Team at MPI.
Title: Successes, challenges and collaborations: updates from the Green Team at the MPI for Terrestrial Microbiology
Bio: Martine did her PhD at EMBL, Heidelberg, working on microfluidic methods for personalised cancer medicine. This is where she first became interested in lab sustainability. She now works as a postdoc at the MPI for Terrestrial Microbiology in Marburg, which she chose for their focus on biotech solutions to climate issues. She’s also part of the Green Team at the MPI-TM, working to implement systematic changes to reduce energy use and waste production.
Some of the points that resonated with me most where:
Do a through survey of your lab to find out where waste is occurring. At the MPI, they found that they were sending hot water to the labs, when no one was actually using it!
Mention your sustainability changes in papers - for example, if you had a -70C vs -80C, point it out to allow this information to show in peer reviewed articles.
Share sustainability options during onboarding. Many people don’t know what’s available, so telling them early allows them to plan to use them.
UV stickers on windows to alert birds not to fly into them. Or, just don’t clean your windows…
