How did the University of Bristol achieve 100% Green Labs?
The LEAF program provides actionable insights
In the summer of 2020, the University of Bristol Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) team declared their sights were set on becoming the first university with 100% certified green labs. Today, I’m delighted to share with the Labconscious community that all 990 STEM laboratories at the University of Bristol attained LEAF certification!
Empowering lab technicians
LEAF certification works symbiotically with the University of Bristol’s commitment that the ‘technician’s voice’ be present in the development and formation of institutional action plans. The LEAF program provides the framework of benchmarked metrics to predict the environmental and financial benefits of sustainable actions. Sustainability training on best practices is offered. Through the university’s commitment, technicians who have direct insights into lab working environments are represented in decision-making groups and teamwork on initiatives. Technicians can partner with undergrads, grad students, and postdocs to establish valuable sustainability actions. These scientists tend to move on every couple of years in an academic lab - whereas the lab technical staff can keep sustainability on track, long term.
We couldn't be more proud of everyone who supported our ambition in gaining institutional certification. Our technical staff in particular showed such dedication and demonstrated our technician's commitment and its four key areas: visibility, sustainability, career development and recognition. Engaging in sustainability projects and certifications enables growth in all these areas and we hope to encourage other institutions to set similar targets —Anna Lewis, Sustainable Science Manager
In that spirit, the Labconscious community would like to thank the following University of Bristol technicians for sharing their experiences with the goal to inspire more lab groups everywhere!
Emma Foose, Core facility technician at Bristol Medical school
Emma Foose is fortunate to have had brilliant, enthusiastic and positive female role models when she started at the University in 2018. She has built on their work and aims to inspire new staff and students to take part in green labs.
One action her lab took was to “chill up” a number of ultra-low temperature freezers to -70°C from -80°C. The act of chilling up saves up to 30% of energy. Encouragingly, the chill up concept spread to sister buildings like the Dorothy Hodgkin building, (Research Floor Level 7 in the Bristol Royal Infirmary) who have chilled up 39 out of their 42 combined ULTs. That was great to showcase for the annual International Freezer Challenge.
We like to refer to our freezer rooms as freezer villages, as each ULT uses the same amount of energy as the average UK household each year. —Emma Foose
Alisha Cramer, Specialist Technician, School of Physics
Alisha Cramer’s lab was already doing a lot of the LEAF requirements to start with, and the few they weren’t already meeting would not take much effort. It was an easy win in all honesty. One action they chose to take across all labs was really simple: putting up stickers reminding people to turn off lights and certain bits of kit when they were done. Lights have been off in empty labs a LOT more often than previously.
Sometimes it feels like, as an individual, you have to be 100% perfect about sustainability practices in order to make a difference, but really, if each individual or group did even merely one extra thing, it would make more of a difference than you’d expect.—Alisha Cramer
Tom Hathway, Core Facility Technician, Bristol Medical School
Tom Hathway tries to be good for the environment at home - so it made sense for him to do the same at work! The amount of energy used and waste generated in research labs is so huge that it sometimes made rinsing out yoghurt pots and switching bulbs at home feel futile in comparison.
His lab sought funding to replace an ageing fleet of fridges and freezers for storing samples and reagents. Many of the units were 15+ years old (some almost as old as Tom!!). They were inefficient and nearing the end of their usable life. Most weren’t inventoried in any way either, so they took the opportunity to sort through them.
There were several benefits to these actions. The new units are more efficient, so there’s a large energy saving. The sorting and inventorying process allowed them to get rid of so much that they could replace 37 units with just 27 - resulting in even greater energy savings and more room than before. Their samples and reagents are better protected in the new units – they’ve got better temperature uniformity, chill down times, and temperature alarms.
There’s so much opportunity to change the ways labs operate in a way that we do things in a way that’s also positive for lab users that it just seemed obvious to put the effort in. —Tom Hathway