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Making your Laboratory more Sustainable

We appreciate sustainability as a way to optimize research practices. When we make our work more efficient, we will automatically reduce our footprint but also benefit from other economical, mental and scientific perks.

We discuss all these topics in our events. However, to create a long lasting impact, we alos summarized some of our insights for you to get an impression.

Benefits of Sustainable Practice

Saving Money

Using fewer consumables means ordering fewer consumables. Tips, serological pipettes, gloves and chemicals – everything is getting more expensive. Being sustainable will pay back economically!

Mental Well-Being

Doing fewer mistakes, feeling engaged and finally leaving this feeling of exhaust behind – by increasing awareness and striving towards a meaningful goal, sustainability offers a new way of connecting to one’s research.

Saving Time

We all spend significant amounts of our time in the laboratory. Often, there is more to do than your schedule allows for. Optimizing your workflow e.g., by following the steps for sustainable SDS-PAGEs might allow to fit an entire experiment-set into one day.

Boosting Team-Work

Establishing Recycling programs or moving -70 freezers for better air ciruculation requires multiple people to come together. And exactly there lies the strength of sustainability – connecting people, reinforcing a feeling of belonging and exchanging knowledge.

Benefiting Data Qualitiy

You optimizing protocols sustainably means to improve experimental design (controls, statistical power and animal welfare) but also reduced processing times and unnecessary steps that might harm sample quality.

Enhancing Softskills

Data analysis, protocol optimization and experimental design are skills that everybody who embraces sustainable approaches will acquire. We also make you become proficient in communicating efficiently – another essential ability to refine through sharing your passion!

More Funding & Publications

On the one hand, funding bodies start to implement sections on sustainable practices in their evaluation schemes. On the other, publishers like Nature, Cell or Society Journals offer to publish experiences and protocols about sustianable practices.

New Friends

Our green family is waiting to get in touch with you. The young community of sustainability is super lovely and well connected. Truly an amazing place to network! Whether for friendships, collaborators or a future position – it will certainly pay off.

How To Get Started

0. Just start with what comes to mind

It does not matter what it is or how trivial it seems - grab the low hanging fruit and build momentum just by starting. It is about following your gut, the rest follows automatically.

An outline

  • 1. Get an Overview - Read some basic guides and see what others have done in order to develope a sense of what is possible
  • 2. Understand your Circumstances - How many people are on board? What is your PI or institute thinking about what is possible?
  • 3. Identify Possibilities - Walk through your institution with open eyes or use one of our techniques to identify opportunities
  • 4. Find Experiences - See who else is engaging in sustainable practice and might be of help with their advice
  • 5. Craft a Plan - Be precise about what you want to change, how, until when and what controls you might need

+ find the steps from above more precisely described in our library​

Remember these are just helpful tips, nothing that will slow you down! During your journey you will discover new opportunities all the time. You will get more confident and tackle bigger challenges. In short, you will reiterate on these steps again and again : )
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Protocols, Guides & the Industry

Concrete Guides and Steps for You

These guides are meant to provide an overview and introduction to various topics. They should enable you to get a basic idea & structure your resources and energy.

Guides & Introductions

A Concept for Change

The 6R concept is a useful framework to derive actionable steps for your laboratory. Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Rethink, Reject, and Repair will guide you the way to a sustainable laboratory. We re-conceptualize the historically grown order into Reduce as the guiding principle, Reject & Rethink as your strategy and Reuse, Recycle and Repair as signifying potential opportunities.
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Computers and Clouds

Bioinformatical approaches are abundant. This guide covers the astonishing impact of computational biology but also addresses how all of us can minimize their footprint with reference to this all-encompassing technology.
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Money, Funding and Financials

Money is also green … Here we provide you a brief overview of the various sources of funding and other possibilities to get your project going. The field is broad and can be intimidating, therefore, take this guide as an introduction into a pool of possibilities. Be assured there are many but it might only need one for you!
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Communication & Sharing

How to convince your coworkers? How to talk to your boss when wanting to optimize a process? Or the other way around, how to make your group excited about sustainability? Here we share some fundamentals on how one can communicate sustainability more effectively. Remember, it is still a sensitive topic and many people mix emotions related to politics, economy, and personal opinions when discussing sustainability.
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Protocols & Inspiration

Making Cell Cultures Sustainable

When we applied these principles to our experiments, we were able to reduce the mass of waste we produced by 71% when transfecting neurons. Let’s see what they can do for you!
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Sustainable SDS-PAGEs

Most labs use SDS-PAGEs in their research. Although one gets the impression that everybody does them differently, let‘s explore how you can save more than 50% of plastic waste in certain steps, no matter which equipment you use!
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Sustainable Approaches to Microscopy Sample Preparation

Microscopy is ubiquitous in research. Probably you came across a myriad of tips and tricks how to prepare samples optimally. However, we give you some ideas how to do it sustainably as well ; )
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Stepping Outside the Laboratory

Ever heard of initiatives called “flying less”? In some conferences, the footprint caused by the participants flying to the event makes up most of the environmental impact. Let’s introduce you to the topic.
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Understanding the Actors

Sustainability is a big topic, it plays are role in politics, economy, our everyday lives and of course research. Who are the actors that we should consider when implementing change for sustainability? Who carries which kind of responsibility and whom can you leverage for your goals? We have the answers ready for you.
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Plastic, Energy, and Water

We know what sustainability in a lab is about … right? Let dive a bit deeper into the common targets of sustainable practice and discover the background to these topics. Learn why recycling of plastics is so complicated and why saving water is not the primary reason for using normal instead of deionized distilled water.
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Space, Equipment & Buildings

Confused? What has laboratory space and buildings to do with sustainability in research? Our guide gives the answer. We shine light on some less often discussed topics in the field. Although you might not be able to change the layout of your laboratory, you can leverage your knowledge to make the most out of it. Furthermore, we will share some impressive numbers that will help you to convince your colleagues when talking about how to organize your space.
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You need a new ally on your side? Sharing insights and approaches is at the heart of sustainable practice.

Collaborating With Universities

What Universities Teach Today Shapes our Future

  • Realize sustainable approaches sensibly, and in a practical manner!
  • Educate students & faculties on how to implement sustainable approaches!
  • Get input for a course or module on sustainability you already teach!

You Are Lucky – You Have Found the Right Partner

The students in our team allow us to stay connected to current thinking and challenges

The more advanced members enable us to share the solutions that reliably work

3 Reasons to Educate on Sustainability

1.

Escpecially young students are attracted by programs that offer education on sustainability

2.

Sustainability is a value for many and thus, a great way to engage and build a feeling of connection

3.

High electricity bills? Spending big on trash without recycling plastic at all? There is a solution!

Let’s Talk How Sustainability Fits to You

You Are a Green Office

Let’s start our collaboration and get you some new input to engage your students

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Give It a Try with a Talk or Event

A free event for students & researchers to learn about sustainability and solutions for their work

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You Need Support or Courses

Whether it is about a particular topic or just to set up a connection, we discuss how to go about it 

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Sharing Experiences & Help

Sharing Experiences from Each and Everyone

Draw inspiration from the strategies employed by others and learn from their experiences. No need to reinvent the wheel. However, if you happen to need help with the montage of your wheel, we can forward you to the specialists in the respective field!

Top 3 tips

Build a Culture of Sustainability

Culture is an essential aspect of all human interaction. Thus, leverage it: emphasize the power of small actions and collective impact. Whether it is turning off lights, unplugging equipment, regularly defrosting freezers, among other things. By integrating sustainability into everyday routines, you can successfully transform sustainability into a shared responsibility within your laboratory.

Address Fairy Tails

People carry numerous unspoken assumptions, presuppositions, and prejudices within their minds. Be courageous! Confront the inconvenient, and speak out loud what otherwise remains unaddressed. While one might initially assume a sense of awkwardness, people will feel relieved once the word is out and open up to discussion. Through this approach you can build trust and figure out the solution to the resistances that otherwise remain hidden.

Speak with Passion

How you express yourself is often as important as what you say. Therefore, speak with passion and share your love of the topic. To do so, make sure that you approach the situation with an open mind to find a solution that truly convinces you. Before advocating for a solution you do not really believe in, address its shortcomings and ask for expertise. In this way you will move closer to your goal and at the same time people realize that you truly care for them and your cause instead of just selling an interest.

Making a medical department sustainable

Embrace the experiences from a dedicated Lab Manager for the Internal Medicine Nephrology department at Rush University Medical Center. Discover the insights gained from merging a laboratory background, student teaching, and behind-the-scenes coordination with a fervent commitment to sustainability!
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Experiences from a Green Labs Associate

This piece stems from the Sustainable Labs Project Associate at the University of Virginia. Some valuable tips from somebody with significant experience in the field!
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Driving change at an institute

Here, we hear from a group leader at an research institute in Canada who started a Green Labs initiative. This story underscores the significance of teamwork in addressing a wide range of sustainability issues within an institute.
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Initiating Change & Laboratory Certification

We talked to Dr. Joana Frobel, a researcher at the Center for Molecular Medicine Cologne. Together with her laboratory, she, achieving the highest My Green Lab certification rating “Green”. She now shares the insights she has made during her journey!
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Do you find sharing these experiences valuable? Share your tips & tricks and become part of the community!

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