A new lab is a fantastic time to be thinking about sustainability. You have the opportunity to make change from the ground up rather than trying to retrofit or implement after everyone is already set in their ways.
There are so many tip to share. Please do go through our database, but here a are a few quick thoughts on the topic.
Lab design:
If funding allows, bench and outlet flexibility is a great to have. Your lab is going to be around for many generations. These days research changes very quickly. Looking forward, we anticipate a lot more collaboration with what we don’t traditionally see as wet-science –for example, robotics, AI, etc. Having more currently functioning, but future-flexible spaces might come in handy and decrease your need to rip out existing infrastructure, or building an entirely new lab.
Check the height of your benches and see how they correspond to the size of the equipment you want to place underneath. Often a slightly higher clearance below the bench allows you to have more flexibility in choosing underbench fridges and freezers.
Check pre-installed equipment specifications and prices carefully. Lab construction company will often offer to pre-install fumehoods, autoclaves, biosafety cabinets and glassware driers. Make sure they are installing the brand/model you want. Careful of builder kickbacks and tax deductions. We’ve seen many cases where these construction companies will install the cheapest (very energy inefficient) models, charge you a huge markup, receive a tax deduction from the government, and a kickback from the supplier. Make sure you get the equipment you want.
Lighting:
Really optimize for natural light (so much nicer to work in natural light, and it’s free). Try LED lighting, occupancy sensors, task lighting (no need to have the overhead lights on if you are the only one in the lab), and the flexibility to delamp (if it turns out the lighting is too bright, can you take out some of the bulbs?).
Sharing:
Sharing is an underrated way to be sustainable. For example, not everyone needs to have their own freezer. A centralized freezer area can mean pooling of resources and only having the build room cooling systems once. Archive freezers can be put further away from the lab.
Waste heat recycling:
Systems that allow waste heat from computer server rooms or freezer rooms to be used in the building are super hot hot hot.
Purchasing Equipment and Consumables:
More information can be found on our Sustainable Procurement page, but below are some quick tips.
Energy Star is a good start. They have a measurement protocol that let’s you better compare between models.
Millipore Sigma has a Greener Alternatives products.
- Green Your Lab had a long meeting with their Head of Sustainability. He walked us through how those products are chosen and the calculations behind it. We feel that they have put in reasonable effort and satisfy our requirements to call it not-Greenwashing.
ACT is an external certification that companies can apply for.
- Green Your Lab has also met with the head of the ACT program. Their methods and data are not public, but they are an external audit agency that looks through manufacturer supplied data and take in account the entire life cycle of the product.
- Sustainable label for equipment
Lab Conscious is a site where you can find all sorts of biodegradable, compostable, and glass equipment.
Buy more sustainable setups
E.g. use bath beads instead of water (in waterbaths), buy autoclaves that don’t continuously pump water out (buy one that varies the water amount according to need).
Fume hoods:
If you have the option, we would recommend any fume hood that is Variable Air Volume (as opposed to Constant Air Volume). VAV hoods means closing the sash decreases the air that is pulled through the opening and uses far less energy than a CAV hood.
Also consider recirculating air. Fumehoods usually send the exhaust out the flue stacks at the top of the building. This isn’t great for the environment. In addition, conditioning of air is extremely energy intensive. Consider air recycling systems where you add carbon filtration systems, acid traps/scrubbers, etc to clean the air and recirculate into the building. *** Warning*** This may not be legal in your location.
Put in Good Lab practices:
- Teach people to reduce their experiments
- Have a rota for turning on full autoclaves/dishwashers
- Teach them about what water quality is required for each experiment
- Implement annual freezer maintenances and cleanouts
- Auto-set things already. For example, spring loaded DI water taps
– Have processes that can be over-ridden, but require effort from users. Or already setting your ULT freezers to -70C and making users who disagree go through the work of lobbying for a temperature decrease. - Put in auto-shut off timers for you equipment
- Put in wash and reuse cycles for commonly used items. If you lab uses a lot of 96-well plates, consider already having a wash, autoclave, and reuse system in place.
Recycling:
This is a great time to implement sorting programs. Start people off segregating their waste properly. In my experience, adding an extra sorting stream later poses a lot of confusion. But if it’s there to begin with, users get used to it.
Try out some new tech:
There’s lots of interesting gadgets out there. But it’s hard for existing labs to incorporate. For example, I see small pipette tip cleaners for sale. I don’t know anyone who has tried and tested one; I’ve only used ones for transfer pipettes. You have the opportunity to implement a few off-the-wall ideas.
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