Category: Blog

Below, you will find all resources mentioned in the talk including some additional information: Talk Related Resources Talk Recordinghttps://youtu.be/1OkfaGaSRMs Talk Slideshttp://re-advance.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Integrating-Sustainability-in-Science-Safely-and-Efficiently-at-the-Leibniz-HKI.pdf Publications Reducing environmental impacts of marine biotoxin monitoring: A laboratory reporthttps://journals.plos.org/sustainabilitytransformation/article?id=10.1371/journal.pstr.0000001 A case report: insights into reducing plastic waste in a microbiology laboratoryhttps://www.microbiologyresearch.org/content/journal/acmi/10.1099/acmi.0.000173 Reducing plastic waste in scientific protocols by 65% — practical steps… Continue reading Resource Overview

There is a lot we can do to optimize our methods. Often, we are only aware of a fraction of the possibilities, as technical options are usually available only to those who have worked for several years with a specific instrument. However, there are several actions we can take that are simple in nature and… Continue reading Making HPLC More Sustainable

Cell culture and S2 work is always a hot topic. Since it involves culturing cells and infecting them, the question naturally arises: what can and cannot be done sustainably in these environments? The answer is – a lot. Even in S2 labs, significant amounts of plastic waste can be saved. I described one of my… Continue reading Cell Culture Opportunities For Sustainable Practice

Jakob investigates how different Candida albicans strains cross an intestinal epithelial barrier grown in transwell inserts. The aim is to test whether the presence of a wild-type, strongly hyphae-forming strain increases the ability of a clinical isolate to translocate and cause damage. It’s a resource-intensive workflow, involving infection steps, barrier measurements, and potential downstream analyses.… Continue reading Making Science Sustainable A Case Study #2

I spent two days with Dr. Jana and Dr. Evelyn Molloy in in their lab, where most project evolve around Molecular Biology workflows to prepare samples to extract biomolecules for HPLC analysis. We walked the lab from one end to the other, following the natural flow of experiments – from preparing media to handling waste… Continue reading Making Science Sustainable A Case Study #1

Reducing waste Reducing plastic waste within the laboratory can be achieved by: -> Cool Examples from my consulting: The idea of using a pipette tip to spread colonies was passed down from an Asian scientist to a postdoc, just as it was to me. Pro tip: it works best with a P200 tip – a… Continue reading A List of Sustainable Practices

When teaching students or new colleagues about the sustainable practices standard in our labs or introducing opportunities for optimizations we have found, it is often effective to tie these tips to topics that are already valued. In this way, we avoid overwhelming the student or colleague with sustainability as yet another factor to keep in… Continue reading Teaching Sustainability Effectively

“Moving from academia to the industry involved a lot of unlearning,” said Debjani Saha, who joined Premas Life Sciences as a product manager after completing her PhD. But what exactly is there to unlearn?And more importantly—what does this shift mean for your daily work, your sense of purpose, and how you feel at the end… Continue reading From Academia to Industry: What’s the Difference?

Every sustainability enthusiast wants take-back programs to make sense. However, to truly assess the sustainability of take-back programs, we would need to know: Unfortunately, not a single company has openly shared a footprint or life cycle analysis, hence, we have to rely on assumptions and estimates. PS: A TL;DR Summary is to be found at… Continue reading The Sustainability of Tack-Back Programs

Here is a list of all take-back programs we know of for you. Please note that these will vary in price, how collection is set up and how re- or downcycling is organized. 🧴 PET Bottles (e.g., for culture media) PAN Biotech🔄 Accepts: Empty PET bottles from culture media and buffer solutions (must be from… Continue reading A Compilation of Take-Back Programs