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Recap of the My Green Lab Summit 2023

Nicole Kelesoglu

More scientists than ever are working to make sustainability the ‘default mode’ for lab work - but this transformation will accelerate when everyone has access to best practices. Twelve hundred people from fifty-nine countries registered for the My Green Lab Annual Summit. Let’s take a look at the ideas from a few of the sessions pertinent to life science. Then, you can view all the recordings using the button below. The theme this year was Engagement + Impact.

life science lab culture is evolving

Eco-friendly biologists are undergoing a common human experience. History shows us that conventional understandings will often slowly erode in the face of new knowledge - rather than be suddenly overthrown. In terms of lab work, there is an established culture referenced across the world on how to protect scientific samples and ensure scientific progress. Sustainability is a novel framework to accomplish those goals for most labs. A relatively small percentage incorporate it into their lab culture. That’s why sharing experiences, research, and institutional infrastructure/setups is critical to establish workable solutions as the new normal for conserving resources and reducing lab waste.

What is The Biotech and Pharma Race to Zero?

My Green Lab is a non-profit with the goal of driving the sustainable transformation of science. The opening of their annual summit focused on making improvements in good faith and organizing at a large scale to build a successful path for everyone to follow. My Green Lab Certification was selected as a United Nations Breakthrough Outcome for pharmaceutical and biotechnology, with the goal to reach 95% of labs across major companies to be My Green Lab certified by 2030. They are trying to help the industry meet their U.N. Race to Zero commitments through education, events, and certification tools.

My Green Lab CEO, James Connelly, shared data from their study that the biotech and pharma industry produces 230 million Metric tons of CO2e annually. That number doesn’t include academic, government, and healthcare research labs. However, the 230 million Metric tons of CO2e does include the sector’s purchased goods and services, waste, products rendered, use of those products, end-of-life of products produced, and transport involved in each of these. (That’s a bunch of emission sources to wrap your head around!) For publicly listed biopharma companies, Scope 3 emissions were reported to be four times the emissions of direct emissions from company-owned and controlled resources (Scope 1) and indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy (Scope 2) combined.

What does all this mean for your typical biologist? To make life science environmentally friendly, we need to learn and implement best practices and actively seek out new tools and techniques that reduce the pollution generated by our workflows - without compromising the science.

A few Session highlights

Sustainability is a new cultural phenomenon for most of life science. Biologists typically view paradigm shifts in research as energizing. When unexpected experimental results reveal a novel understanding it gets everyone fired up. Let’s use that spirit to learn new ways to take responsibility for protecting the environment!

Key takeaways from the roundtable discussions:

  • Chief Innovation Officer and Co-founder of REUZEit moderated a panel discussion on leveraging vendors, sustainability organizations, and other institutions in a green lab program - and shared that reusing lab equipment reduces associated GHG emissions by 99.7%

  • University of California Santa Barbara Sustainability Officer Katie Maynard and student researcher and green champion Ilan Henzler shared how lab recycling initiatives can provide metrics to include in grant applications for funding more greening efforts, as well as the types of funding sources available for lab sustainability projects.

  • A poll on engagement barriers showed that culture, the time involved, and fear can impede sustainability initiatives. Patrick Pendorf of Green Laboratory Work and Brenna Knott from Rush University Medical Center led a discussion on how to overcome these.

  • BIOGEN’s Tooba Gilani and Tracey Coady of South-East Technology University explained why passionate individual scientists are so helpful in engaging all staff members and leadership.

  • Anthony Michetti, Director of Sustainability at Cell Signaling Technology (CST), encouraged peers to join CST in supporting 1% for the Planet, which supports organizations that protect ecosystems and biodiversity but also supports a unique ecosystem of non-profits involved in lab sustainability, including My Green Lab, I2SL, Beyond Benign, and Seeding Labs.

The Innovative Products for Sustainable Labs session speakers explained the design and intent of some leading-edge tools including bio-based plastic consumables, closed-loop lab recycling, building-scale technology for on-site decontamination of biohazardous waste, a slide-free automated cell counter, and solvent recycling. Unique solutions are a favorite topic of the Labconscious blog - so we hope to follow up with more about these technologies later.

You can review the complete session topics and speakers detailed in the schedule below, then register with My Green Lab to watch the sessions that interest you most. Registration is free for academic researchers and students.

Read More About Sustainable Laboratory Work…