University sustainability programs change science’s environmental footprint
On September 25, 2015, the United Nations approved a set of sustainability targets, calling the resulting list “17 Goals to Transform Our World” (https://www.unglobalcompact.org/sdgs/17-global-goals). With objectives including energy efficiency, resource-use reduction and clean water, the goals apply to green programs for research and industrial labs.
Michael Ochs, assistant director of environmental health and safety at Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe, says its green labs program aims to provide “resource conservation and assist in reducing energy use, and to implement other sustainable lab practices through education and alternative solutions.” He adds, “Green labs also supports ASU’s chemical exchange program and the lab glass recycling program.”
Some universities, such as the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, offer green certification to labs. UW green certification intern Caroline Beightol explains: “The certification is based on practices in action areas like energy usage, waste, chemical usage, water usage, lab communication, work-related travel, etcetera.” She also notes, “It’s a way for us to create a network and share best practices across offices and labs within different departments throughout campus.” The UW certification comes in three levels—gold, silver and bronze—and, Beightol says, “having a tiered certification allows room for improvement as labs recertify year to year.”
Students can make campuses greener, like this group at the University of Washington in Seattle working on a disposal glove-recycling campaign. (Image courtesy of the University of Washington in Seattle.)The breadth of what a green lab program covers can be extensive. At the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder, green labs program manager Kathryn A. Ramirez-Aguilar says the university’s program “creates a campus team approach to conservation in scientific laboratories involving partnership with scientists, facilities management and environmental health and safety, plus collaboration with other campus stakeholders, such as procurement, risk management, research and innovation, etcetera.” The program aims to “engage scientists to act to reduce the environmental footprint of their research where possible without compromising safety or research integrity,” she adds.
Reducing energy
Energy use for conditioning air creates a big concern for many universities, and some are developing tactics to combat this. Ochs says he and his colleagues are “working together with the facilities development and management department to develop an internal lab ventilation guideline used for new lab construction and existing lab remodels to optimize HVAC efficiency while maintaining safety protocols for the lab occupants. … The guideline is currently being used to develop a lab ventilation model for the design of a new research building on our campus.”
Advances in efficiency can come from something as simple as closing a hood sash. To encourage that at ASU, Ochs and his team installed “fume-hood stickers throughout our campuses,” he explains, “which remind researchers to shut the fume-hood sash when it is not in use.”
In addition to keeping the sash closed when a fume hood is running but not being used, scientists can turn off hoods when the exhaust is not needed, but that depends on what’s in the hood.
When it comes to reducing energy use, freezers are often mentioned. “This past summer,” says Ramirez-Aguilar, “the CU Boulder green labs program launched a shared ultralow-temperature (ULT) freezer program where labs can rent space in a local, shared ULT freezer rather than needing to purchase their own.” CU Boulder green labs outreach coordinator Christina Greever runs this program, which uses the most energy-efficient units on the market, with a setpoint of –70 °C. This program, notes Ramirez-Aguilar, “aims to keep the need for additional ULT freezers on campus to a minimum through efficient space utilization in the shared ULT freezers. … The program promotes efficient space use by requiring inventorying, charging a nominal rental fee which places a cost on freezer space and providing the ability for scientists to easily share space.”
Recycle where possible
All lab waste cannot be eliminated, but more can be recycled than some scientists imagine. Ochs says, “We are currently working with the ASU zero waste department to develop a disposable glove-recycling program, which will accept disposable gloves as a universal practice.” He adds, “If successful, this can be expanded to other areas outside of the labs, which also use disposable gloves, including residential life, food services and so on.”
Gloves get attention at other universities, too. In the spring and summer of 2016, UW’s green labs program “ran a waste audit and glove-recycling campaign in conjunction with UW purchasing and UW recycling,” says Beightol. “Students from various labs across campus joined in to pick through lab waste and determine what percentage of that waste was composed of gloves.” UW’s purchasing department teamed up with Texas-based Kimberly-Clark—a glove maker, among other things—“to establish a way in which UW could begin to ship gloves back to the provider to be recycled,” Beightol says. “It was a well-executed collaboration, and is something I frequently share with labs to illustrate that these successes come from various groups on campus working together.” As she says, “We can’t do it alone!”
A wider perspective
Although university greener-lab programs benefit the institution, the results can go beyond campus boundaries. Ochs points out that ASU pursues “overall sustainability goals of achieving climate neutrality, zero solid and water waste and active engagement of the ASU community, and to promote principled practices going forward.”
The CU Boulder green labs program works beyond its campus in many ways. “The CU Boulder green labs team gives multiple presentations at the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories—I2SL—conference yearly,” says Ramirez-Aguilar. “Additionally, we share and collaborate through the Green Labs Planning Group e-mail list, which is managed by Allen Doyle at the University of California Davis.”
In most cases, working within one university is a big enough challenge. Beightol and her colleagues are in the middle of “an effort to get all labs in the health sciences certified.” She notes that targeting a specific department works best, and then building outreach from there. As she says, “We love it when our program grows from word of mouth—across labs, floors, buildings and departments.”
Over time, the outreach at one campus will spread to another. That could start a green revolution unlike any science labs have ever seen.