Teaching Sustainability Effectively
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 mind. Moreover, we can immediately outline how sustainable practices can save time, money, and improve data quality. Best Practices Teaching students best practices can often feel dry and tedious; however, they matter. Point out how these practices help them work more efficiently, faster, and, of course, more sustainably—thereby linking internal and external motivators. Knowing When (and Where) to Reuse Lab Plastics One of the best skills you can teach your students and colleagues is protocol literacy: knowing where absolute precision is required and where it is not. As one of my previous mentors said: “If I tried to do every step with absolute precision, I would never finish my day.” The same applies to sustainability: differentiate where contamination poses a real risk—such as in qPCRs or when working with delicate samples—and where it does not, like in many washing steps or some qualitative check-ups (e.g., cutting controls run on agarose gels). In the latter case, many items can be reused or rinsed between steps. A serological pipette reused for a simple transfer or wash isn’t sloppy; it’s efficient both in terms of plastic and time. Setting Up Master Mixes Teaching students to create master mixes instead of preparing each reaction separately is fundamental. By pipetting larger volumes at once, accuracy improves significantly—pipetting 50 µL is inherently more precise than 1 µL, especially for inexperienced hands. Plus, you’ll reduce the number of pipette tips used and streamline your workflow. A simple yet powerful tip: always pipette water first. When preparing a master mix for PCR or similar protocols, adding water to the mix first allows you to reuse the same tip for multiple ingredients—cutting tip use dramatically without compromising sterility. It’s not just efficient; it’s smarter lab work. Choosing Kits With Less Plastic Kits are a bit like a scientific black box. We have a rough idea of how they work, but many components remain obscure. On top of that, they often come with excessive plastic packaging or single-use tools. Teach students to scrutinize suppliers and challenge default kit choices—both in terms of packaging and how well they work. Teach them that purchasing decisions should align with priorities, not habit. Turning Instruments On/Off with Intent Forgetting to preheat a water bath or leaving a heat block containing cells running can cause an entire day to fall apart. Therefore, hand over the responsibility for turning instruments on or off to your students—they will learn to plan ahead, ensuring they know which equipment needs to be prepped in advance. It’s a great way to teach them to save energy, optimize time management, and prevent mishaps. Health & Safety Safety measures are often considered trivial and unnecessary. We can hardly make people care more about themselves, but we can teach them the importance of proactively following these measures to ensure a more sustainable research practice: Green Chemistry and Safer Solvents Hazardous solvents are as much a risk for health as they are for the environment. Teaching students to check whether greener alternatives are available can have an outsized impact over time. For example, greener tissue fixation, xylene-free mounting media, or, in HPLC, simply tightening solvent bottle caps reduces evaporation and protects both the user and the environment. It’s a great way to make people care about the often tedious safety instructions. Fume Hoods & Vapors Often, shutting the sash seems like a trivial activity. However, make students aware that the sash is their friend, preventing them from breathing in what might cause cancer 20 years later. Additionally, there are numerous different models, but several fume hoods simply release the sucked air into the outside. Meaning, we don’t breathe them in directly, but it doesn’t mean these fumes are gone. Teach students to think beyond the here and now. Once it clicks, they will appreciate you taking the time to care for them. Finally, let’s mention closing liquid waste container lids or installing evaporation lids on HPLCs. Of course, you can follow a similar strategy to the example above. Protocol Optimization Protocols are often handed down without question. By teaching students to actively assess, rethink, and optimize protocols, you will teach them a skill that few researchers have—making them more sustainable while laying important foundations for the rest of their careers: HPLC gradients are often passed down by users. However, especially in modern systems, you can optimize these gradients for much shorter run times without sacrificing data quality. By adjusting both the flow rate and gradient profile, you can reduce solvent consumption significantly, making the process more sustainable, saving time, and reducing costs. Optimizing protocols can sometimes mean pivoting approaches. A good example is Solid-Phase Microextraction (SPME), a method that can drastically lower solvent use and waste, offering a more sustainable alternative to traditional liquid-liquid extraction methods. Additionally, it is often easier and quicker to perform. Instrument Use All too often, we use instruments without truly knowing how they work. Let’s be honest: we understand the basic principle and are interested in the results. However, if you want to give your students deeper insights (enabling them to prevent damage and optimize workflows in the future), you will often also give them the tools to identify opportunities for sustainable practices. Here are some examples: HPLC Column Design Explain to students that the choice of HPLC column impacts both analysis efficiency and environmental footprint. Smaller particle diameters in HPLC columns lead to better resolution and shorter analysis times. When paired with narrower internal diameters, students can reduce solvent usage by up to 80%, creating more efficient experiments and reducing resource consumption. This practice allows students to understand how thoughtful equipment choices can result in significant sustainability gains without sacrificing scientific integrity.
From Academia to Industry: What’s the Difference?
“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 of the day? If you’re debating whether to stay in academia or transition into industry, you’re probably weighing career prospects, pay, and types of positions. But before you consider those, you might want to understand the differences that will shape your everyday work life. So let’s unpack it! Although few talk about it, there is one major shift that underpins all other differences when you enter the industry: motivation. You Know It—Academia Is Driven by Ideas In other words, research is fueled by curiosity. From undergrad students to principal investigators, the driving question is: What don’t we know yet? Even when progress is slow, it’s the chance to explore unknowns that motivates the work. Basically, publishing can be understood as the main currency of success. However, it is hard to quantify beyond publication count and impact factor. And emotionally, that means you often sit with open questions, delayed gratification, and personal responsibility for every setback. In Industry, Targets Are the Main Driver Here, success isn’t measured in knowledge but in impact—through revenue, product delivery, or customer satisfaction. The mindset is: How do we solve a problem in a way that keeps the business going by satisfying others? That doesn’t mean science isn’t valued. It is—but only insofar as it contributes to the set target. Curiosity must now have a purpose. This shift transforms how work is structured. So, let’s break down how this difference shows up in your everyday work. Here are 3 major differences you should consider: 1. Freedom vs. Structure Academia: High Freedom, High Responsibility You control your time, your direction, and even what question you’re asking. You can pivot quickly if you see something promising. Need to start a new experiment tomorrow? Go for it—no need for approval. But all that freedom comes with weight. You carry the consequences alone, and if something fails, you have to decide how to continue. While this responsibility can be empowering, it can also feel isolating and exhausting under the wrong circumstances. Industry: Shared Structure, Shared Risk In industry, decisions go through layers. Starting a new project or changing direction requires approval and often cross-department coordination. That can feel slow, especially if you’re used to academic autonomy. But it also means you’re not alone. Risk is distributed. Strategic decisions are informed by data, past experience, and broader business goals. There’s a safety net—and often, a higher chance of success because you’re building on well-tested systems. -> Emotionally, this means less pressure to be a “lone genius” and more collaboration—with both its comforts and its constraints. 2. Progress vs. Success Academia: Variable and Open As you might know, defining success in academia is hard. You may spend years on a project that leads to a single paper. Feedback and guidance are often informal, trickling in during presentations or peer reviews. That ambiguity can be liberating for some but frustrating for others. You’re often chasing moving targets without knowing if you’re “doing well.” Industry: Clear, Fast Feedback Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) matter. Revenue, time-to-market, or customer satisfaction—these metrics make performance visible. Formal reviews and goal-setting are regular. That also means failure is clearer. If something doesn’t work, it’s cut. Projects don’t drag on indefinitely. ->Although it might sound intimidating, in reality, it is often motivating to be able to monitor tangible progress. But it also requires adjusting to accountability that’s immediate and concrete. 3. Funding vs. Making Money Academia: Grants Fuel Discovery In academic research, money is the input and insight is the outcome. Once you get the grant, you decide how to spend it. It buys time and freedom. But funding is sporadic and competitive, often linked to the PI, with little influence from others (unless you get grants as a postdoc). Emotionally, this is often not evident for younger scientists. For senior colleagues, this can be a rollercoaster: long periods of insecurity and little connection between effort and reward. Industry: Money Is the Mission In business, money is both the means and the end—like a loop. Every investment must yield a return—whether that’s a drug, a technology, or a service. If something costs more than it delivers, it will hurt the company. That sounds harsh—but it also unlocks opportunity. If a product succeeds, it brings in revenue. That revenue can grow the team, improve tools, or fund new initiatives. Success isn’t capped by grant limits—it can scale. -> Emotionally, this creates a feedback loop that feels real. You see the impact of your work not just in knowledge—but in products, people helped, and company growth. However, it also pins you down to work on and refine things that must have value for your business. The Bottom Line: Mindset Shapes Experience Transitioning from academia to industry isn’t just about new tasks—it’s about changing how you orient your attitude and work. And the scientists who thrive in this different world are the ones who can see the value in this new attitude. Let’s hear from Debjani Saha once again: “As an academic, one is responsible for moving a project along… The industry involves a lot of teamwork and people management skills, and this may end up giving a person a feeling of not having enough control or ownership of one’s project…” A Little Bonus That means collaboration looks different too. Although collaborations are not rare in academia, they are usually parallel play: different labs or scientists contribute samples or data independently to eventually put together a single paper. In industry, you’re often part of a multidisciplinary team. And success depends on coordination. Your experiments must meet regulatory standards, and sales must align with the marketing strategy. You work with people who aren’t scientists—and that’s the point. If
The Sustainability of Tack-Back Programs
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 the bottom of the page : ) Nevertheless, let’s look at some number to get a feel for the order of magnitude we’re talking about here: Overall Plastic Impact If we consider the entire life cycle of plastics that means from production to End-of-Life we arrive at the following numbers (I listed the journals name as links to see which are papers and which are other sources): That means, 4-5kg CO2e per kilogram plastic is the maximal amount of carbon we could save after all by reducing our use. If we were to reuse our items, we would at least save 1/x with x being the times we reuse the item. =4000-5000gCO2/kg plastic waste Virgin Plastic Production: One key point in our discussion will be the difference in emission when creating new (virgin) plastics from crude oil or natural gas versus recycling the same item. JRC Techincal Report: 1547g CO2/kgTechnical Report: Tonini, D. et al., Environmental effects of plastic waste recycling. 2021. JRC Technical Report, Joint Research Centre, European Commission. doi:10.2760/22311 CISL: 2300 CO₂/kgMaterial Economics et al., Industrial Transformation 2050: Pathways to Net-Zero Emissions from EU Heavy Industry. 2019. University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). https://materialeconomics.com/publications/industrial-transformation-2050 Wiley: 2500-3000g/kg Bataineh, K. M. et al., Life-cycle assessment of recycling postconsumer high-density polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. 2020. Advances in Civil Engineering, Volume 2020, Article ID 8905431, 15 pages. doi:10.1155/2020/8905431 = 1500-3000gCO2e/kg plastic waste End-of-Life Impacts Now, let’s zoom in on the emissions released once plastic items are thrown away. We will not assume that plastic items are autoclaved after use because contaminated items cannot be included in take back programs and even if such a step is included for “safety reasons” I would add the same amount to each scenario. Still, there are a few ways to treat plastics after they have been discarded: Landfilling plastics RSC: ~253 g/kg (due to methane release)Eriksson, O. et al., Plastic waste as a fuel – CO₂-neutral or not? 2009. Energy & Environmental Science, Issue 9. doi:10.1039/B908135F JRC Techincal Report: 400-800g CO2/kgTechnical Report: Tonini, D. et al., Environmental effects of plastic waste recycling. 2021. JRC Technical Report, Joint Research Centre, European Commission. doi:10.2760/22311 If you are surprised by this number, remember that we only look at climate change impact, i.e., CO2e, whereas for landfilling, microplastics and leaching additives are bigger concerns. =250-800gCO2/kg plastic waste Incineration RSC: 500–4500 g/kgEriksson, O. et al., Plastic waste as a fuel – CO₂-neutral or not? 2009. Energy & Environmental Science, Issue 9. doi:10.1039/B908135F IPCC: 2697 g/kg of plastic waste2006 IPCC Guidelines for National Greenhouse Gas Inventories Polystyrene (PS) and PE (around 3 kg/kg plastics) and lower for e.g. PP and PUR (around 2.5 kg/kg plastics). For the purpose of this work, 2.7 kg CO2/kg plastics have been used for all incinerated end of life plastics JRC Techincal Report: 1391g CO2/kg Technical Report: Tonini, D. et al., Environmental effects of plastic waste recycling. 2021. JRC Technical Report, Joint Research Centre, European Commission. doi:10.2760/22311 ScienceDirect: 780g/kg with energy recoveryvan der Hulst, M. K. et al., Greenhouse gas benefits from direct chemical recycling of mixed plastic waste. 2022. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Volume 186, Article 106582. doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106582 Commonly, one differentiates incineration and energy recovery. While energy recovery refers to converting waste into usable energy (like electricity or heat), often through combustion, incineration basically means pure burning of waste, not capturing that energy. Obviously, the more energy can be recovered for other applications, the lower the carbon release impact as the emissions that would be created to generate this energy is deducted. Some even suggest negative impacts for energy recovery because under ideal energy recovery conditions and when using biogenic carbon (bioplastics) one can argue that one gets energy from carbon that was fixed by plants before. However, this is beyond our current discussion (see our previous discussion: https://readvance.ck.page/posts/biogenic-carbon. =700-4500gCO2/kg plastic waste Impact of mechanical recycling We have to remember that recycling takes energy too – we have sort the plastics, clean them and turn them into pellets/the new product. That means running the machines and sometimes heat the plastics. ScienceDirect: 4.4 kg CO₂/kg -> note that this the impact of open-loop recycling (thus, the high number)Schwarz, A. E. et al., Plastic recycling in a circular economy: Determining environmental performance through an LCA matrix model approach. 2021. Waste Management, Volume 121, Pages 331–342. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2020.12.020 JRC Techincal Report: 400-800g CO2/kgSchwarz, A. E. et al., Plastic recycling in a circular economy: Determining environmental performance through an LCA matrix model approach. 2021. Waste Management, Volume 121, Pages 331–342. doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2020.12.020 ((Wiley: <300 g/kg (Review) – but all values very lowVollmer, I. et al., Beyond mechanical recycling: Giving new life to plastic waste. 2020. Angewandte Chemie International Edition, Volume 59, Pages 15402–15423. doi:10.1002/anie.201915651)) Wiley: 600-700g/kg – cut-off (with system expansion data there too) Bataineh, K. M. et al., Life-cycle assessment of recycling postconsumer high-density polyethylene and polyethylene terephthalate. 2020. Advances in Civil Engineering, Volume 2020, Article ID 8905431, 15 pages. doi:10.1155/2020/8905431 Elsevier: 111g/kgSharma, R. et al., Gate to gate life cycle assessment of greenhouse gas emissions and acidification potential in plastic recycling technologies in Nepal. 2025. Results in Engineering, Volume 26, Article 105367. doi:10.1016/j.rineng.2025.105367 MDPI: 150g/kgTinz, J. et al., Carbon footprint of mechanical recycling of post-industrial plastic waste: Study of ABS, PA66GF30, PC and POM regrinds. 2023. Waste, Volume 1, Pages 127–139. doi:10.3390/waste1010010 =100-800gCO2e/kg plastic waste Important Note: Plastic recycling is limited – Eventually, plastics will still be incinerated or landfilled. See the following two publications if you want to know more: That means, in most cases, one would simply prolong the inevitable.Even when downcycled into construction materials (which may last 40+ years), end-of-life recycling is unlikely. That means that from a life-cycle
A Compilation of Take-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 PAN)🌐 Recycling Portal 🧪 Tip Racks / Pipette Tip Boxes StarLab (TipOne Program)🔄 Accepts: Empty TipOne® pipette tip racks (only from StarLab, cleaned and free of tips)🌐 TipOne Recycling Polycarbin🔄 Accepts: Rinsed tip boxes, conical tubes, media bottles, and other rigid lab plastics🌐 Polycarbin Fisher Scientific / Thermo Fisher🔄 Accepts: Fisher brand pipette tip boxes and racks (specific SKUs only)🌐 Fisher Pipette Tip Box Recycling VWR (via TerraCycle)🔄 Accepts: Empty pipet tip boxes (brand-neutral, through TerraCycle’s program)🌐 VWR TerraCycle Program Corning (MailBack Program)🔄 Accepts: Tip racks, pipette trays, and some rigid plastic lab packaging (must be clean and Corning brand)🌐 Corning Recycling 📦 Packaging Materials Millipore Sigma / Merck Greener Cooler Program:🔄 Accepts: ULT shippers and returnable cooler packs🌐 Greener Cooler Polystyrene Cooler Return:🔄 Accepts: Polystyrene (EPS) foam coolers used for shipping temperature-sensitive products🌐 Cooler Return Corning (MailBack)🔄 Accepts: Expanded polystyrene packaging and plastic inserts (must be Corning)🌐 Corning MailBack 🧤 Nitrile Gloves Fisher Scientific🔄 Accepts: Fisherbrand nitrile gloves🌐 Glove Recycling Polycarbin🔄 Accepts: Nitrile gloves 🌐 Polycarbin Gloves Kimberly-Clark (RightCycle Program)🔄 Accepts: Clean, uncontaminated nitrile gloves and some PPE (from participating brands)🌐 RightCycle ⚗️ Instruments Agilent (Buyback Program)🔄 Accepts: Used Agilent instruments for trade-in or certified pre-owned programs🌐 Agilent Buyback ♻️ Various Lab Items TerraCycle (Custom Programs)🔄 Accepts: Lab-specific waste streams such as gloves, tip boxes, vials (custom programs with cost)🌐 TerraCycle Lab Programs 🧬 Other Initiatives LabCycle (UK)♻️ Focus: Circular solutions for lab plastics; currently UK-based pilot projects🌐 LabCycle Envetec♻️ Focus: On-site treatment for bio-contaminated lab waste to avoid incineration🌐 Envetec
ACT®Ecolabel 2.0 Scoring System: An Overview & Discussion
The ACT® (Accountability, Consistency, Transparency) Ecolabel evaluates the environmental impact of lab products across five major categories. With the new ACT Ecolabel 2.0, My Green Lab® provides a 100-point based Environmental Performance Factor (EPF). Here, we will provide you with a short explanation of what is assessed and discuss some nuances that you should know about: Category Overview: 🔍 1. Audit of the Product Content: Use Phase: Lifetime: 📦 2. Audit of the Packaging Evaluation Criteria: 🏭 3. Audit of the Manufacturing Facility Evaluation Criteria: 🌍 4. Company GHG Reductions Evaluation Criteria: 🧮 5. Product Carbon Reporting Evaluation Criteria: ♻️ 6. Improvements Evaluates recent product improvements across ACT categories that significantly reduce environmental impact. 🌟 7. Innovation (Bonus Category) To qualify, the product must meet at least one of the following: If you want know in detail what each category covers and how many points can be achieved for each category, you can do so here. Discussion: Some Nuances You Should Note: Why the ACT Eolabel Is Currently the Best Sustainability Standard in Science Preempting Criticism – What the ACT Ecolabel Cannot Do What Could Be Done Differently These address similar aspects—GHG emissions from energy use—but under different lenses. While a facility may rightfully receive credit in more than one category, an alternative would be measuring GHG emissions directly from the outset, rather than through fragmented proxies. What You Should Assess Beyond the ACT Ecolabel Products that allow for smaller volumes of chemicals or reagents—whether through design, improved efficiency, or innovative protocols—can significantly reduce upstream environmental impact. Lighter products require fewer raw materials to produce and generate lower transportation emissions. Products designed for multiple uses instead of single use can dramatically reduce waste, especially in high-throughput laboratory settings – this is especially important e.g., for tubes or tips and their resistance to autoclavation. Some suppliers reduce environmental impact not by changing the product itself, but through other innovations. Those could be streamlined logistics—for example, through bulk shipments, consolidated deliveries, or modular systems that reduce how often restocking is required. In Essence The ACT Ecolabel is currently the top choice for scientists to assess the environmental impact of lab items. Few other fields offer a multi-category label that transparently provides quantified impact data like the ACT Ecolabel does. This is an outstanding initiative, and thanks to its clarity and conciseness, it’s a tool you should definitely use for your next procurement decision. For more, visit our main Website
Reducing the Impact of AI
Personal Note from the Editor, Patrick: Hi there, beautiful to see you! A quick question: how long is your average conversation with ChatGPT? A single query to a large language model (LLM) consumes between 0.5 and 50 Wh, releasing 1–5 grams of CO₂. That’s ≈10 times more than for a conventional (“old-school”) Google search. But what does that mean for us scientists? Reducing Our Impacts According to Lannelongue et al., training AlphaFold took 11 days and emitted approximately 3.92 tons of CO₂e. And each time it predicts the structure of a protein with 2,500 residues, it adds another 3 kg CO₂e. This isn’t just limited to biology. For comparison, the telescopic research station in Hawaii produces an estimated 749 tons of CO₂e every year—mostly for research purposes. So how can we reduce our footprint? Reduction – Handle AI with Care We saw that a single ChatGPT prompt uses, on average, 10 times more energy than a Google search. Generating a picture with DALL·E or Midjourney can consume between 0.5–1 kWh, translating to 100–400 grams of CO₂ emissions. Therefore, when it comes to simple questions—like protein sizes or chemical formulas—you might be better off searching in UniProt or Wikipedia. If you use Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT, optimizing your prompts can make a difference. For example, under standardized testing conditions: Although a study by Adamska et al. suggests that prompt length has limited influence on energy use, response length is linearly correlated with consumption. However, here are three habits that make your AI usage more efficient: Using Services & Storing Data In March 2020, DE-CIX in Frankfurt—the world’s largest internet exchange point—recorded a throughput peak of 9.16 terabits per second. That’s equivalent to more than two million HD videos being transmitted simultaneously. Moreover, storing 1,000 GB of data in data centers can generate 100–300 kg of CO₂ per year. That’s 20–50 watts per terabyte—continuously.(The nitty gritty of how optimized networks can reduce energy use by 30–95% you can read in our free Slack Channel). Therefore: Knowing the Limits of AI ChatGPT performs well at explaining statistical concepts but is often unreliable for actually performing calculations. For that, you’re better off using dedicated statistical software. How to test and validate: Getting the Time Right Electricity grids fluctuate in carbon intensity throughout the day, depending on demand and the availability of renewables like solar and wind. According to Dodge et al., if you time your bioinformatics jobs strategically: You can find some additional actions to reduce impacts in our free Slack of you like. Applying The Knowledge Don’t shy away from AI for fear of its environmental impact.AI is here to stay—and it can play a key role in improving science. But when using AI, ask yourself: A good rule of thumb to reduce your impact: keep computation times as short as possible.That means optimizing prompts, double-checking settings, and planning AI use as part of your experimental design. Want to track your own emissions? Written by Patrick Penndorf – LinkedIn This is a piece from the Sustainability Snack – a weekly educational Newsletter. You can now join for free. References Grealey, J., et al., 2022. The carbon footprint of bioinformatics. Mol. Biol. Evol. 39(3), msac034. doi:10.1093/molbev/msac034. Posani, L., et al., 2019. The carbon footprint of distributed cloud storage. Tech. Rep., Cornell University. arXiv:1803.06973. doi:10.48550/arXiv.1803.06973. Flagey, N., et al., 2020. Measuring carbon emissions at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope. Nat Astron4, 816–818. doi:10.1038/s41550-020-1190-4 Gröger, J., et al., 2021. Green Cloud Computing: Lebenszyklusbasierte Datenerhebung zu Umweltwirkungen des Cloud Computing. Tech. Rep., Umweltbundesamt. Forschungskennzahl 3717 34 348 0. Luccioni, A.S., Viguier, S., Ligozat, A.-L., 2022. Estimating the carbon footprint of BLOOM, a 176B parameter language model. Tech. Rep., Cornell University. arXiv:2211.02001. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2211.02001. Dodge, J., et al., 2022. Measuring the carbon intensity of AI in cloud instances. Proc. ACM Conf. Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency (FAccT ’22), 1877–1894. Assoc. Comput. Mach., New York, NY, USA. doi:10.1145/3531146.3533234. Chien, A. A., et al., 2023. Reducing the carbon impact of generative AI inference (today and in 2035). Proc. 2nd Workshop on Sustainable Computer Systems (HotCarbon ’23), Article 11, 1–7. Assoc. Comput. Mach., New York, NY, USA. doi:10.1145/3604930.3605705. Hanafy, W. A., et al., 2023. CarbonScaler: Leveraging cloud workload elasticity for optimizing carbon-efficiency. Proc. ACM Meas. Anal. Comput. Syst. 7(3), Article 57, 28 pages. doi:10.1145/3626788. Adamska, M., et al., 2025. Green prompting. Tech. Rep., Lancaster University. arXiv:2503.10666. doi:10.48550/arXiv.2503.10666. Lannelongue, L., Inouye, M., 2023. Environmental impacts of machine learning applications in protein science. Cold Spring Harb. Perspect. Biol. 15(12), a041473. doi:10.1101/cshperspect.a041473
A Guide to Proper Freezer Maintenance
Here’s an easy guide on how to clean your ULT freezer effectively while keeping downtime to a minimum. General Maintenance Clean the Condenser Filter The condenser filter traps dust and debris, which can block airflow and overwork the compressor. 👉 Schedule: Every 3 months or as recommended by the manufacturer. Clean the Condenser Coil The condenser coil dissipates heat from the freezer. Dust accumulation reduces efficiency. 👉 Schedule: Every 6–12 months, depending on the environment. Defrosts the freezer 👉 Schedule: Recommended once every six months but realistically more pragmatic to do once a year Clean the Vacuum Relief Port / Auto Vent Port The vacuum relief port prevents the door from sticking shut after opening. 👉 Tip: A clogged port can make reopening the freezer challenging and cause wear on the door
How To -Freezer Storage Documentation
Freezer sample storage documentation is crucial as it not only saves energy by reducing freezer opening times, it also safeguards samples. Given the high turnover of people in science, having a reliable tracing system is key. Here are the basic steps on creating an outline (as simple as an Excel Sheet): Create The Basic Outline Enhance The Design Optional: Create a Visual Box Map Ensure Easy Access
Science & Sustianability
| The scientific instruments market, including all its innovations, was estimated at an astonishing $40 billion in 2023. When it comes to sustainability, approximately 50% of a laboratory’s electricity consumption is attributable to their instrumentation Similarly, billions of liters of reagents are required annually to run instruments. Surprisingly, even in the high-performance segment, significant efficiency differences exist. That means you can become more sustainable by saving reagents, reducing maintenance, and optimizing time when choosing the right instruments. Let us review some inspiring examples to provide you with a sense of what could be of help to you: Mass Spectrometry Some MS systems use nitrogen to remove solvent from ions in the ionization source. More efficient source designs and optimized desolvation processes can reduce this consumption. For instance, Waters’ ESI mass spectrometers require a gas flow of 20–23 L/min, compared to other systems that use up to 77 L/min. In fact, older instruments consume liquid nitrogen even in “standby” mode. At first glance, these numbers might seem negligible, but consider that in core facilities, instruments typically run for 8 hours each working day, 200 workdays à year (=48000 hours): > Traditional Operation: 77 L/min × 48,000 min = 3,696,000 L > Sustainable Operation: 23 L/min × 48,000 min = 1,140,800 L In many industrial settings, instruments operate 24/7, enabling more than 23 Million liters of Nitrogen savings! On Top, modern instrument come with vacuum pumps that achieve comparable pumping capacities at only 500 watts, whereas traditional oil pumps consume between 1,500 and 3,000 watts. High-Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) In HPLC, several innovations have emerged. For example, solid-core particles or halving column length and particle size enable more efficient separations, reducing run times by up to 50%. = This also means 50% less solvent use and energy consumption compared to conventional machines. However, one of the most exciting advancements exists in column diameter. While conventional LC-UV instruments still use 4.6-mm inner diameter (i.d.) columns, switching to 2.1-mm i.d. columns can reduce solvent consumption by up to 80%. Although extra column dispersion or internal backpressure can become a challenge, even more forgiving alternatives with 3.0-mm i.d. columns save about 60% of mobile phase use. Considering that approximately 150 million kilograms of methanol and acetonitrile are used annually, these changes could save 50 million kilograms—the equivalent weight of 10 Eiffel Towers! Investigating Protein Interactions – SPR Beyond time and reagents use, efficient handling of samples is key. Older SPR (Surface Plasmon Resonance) instruments that enable the study of affinity of two ligands require approximately 150 µL of sample. Newer models, such as the Alto, reduce this amount to just 2 µL while requiring lower protein concentrations overall. Although the concrete sustainability of this innovation has to be judged based on Life Cycle Analysis data, this instrument runs on DMF-powered cartridges, meaning it has no internal fluidics. As a result, maintenance and repair requirements for this part are eliminated altogether. Imagine the reduced stress when less sample volume is needed, and expensive service calls are avoided—not to mention the lower carbon footprint associated with fewer service expert visits. How This Knowledge Helps You: Reagent use, running time, and sample preparation requirements are often undervalued when searching for new instruments. Importantly, faster processing speeds have compounding effects: reduced energy use, less heat generation, and therefore lower HVAC demands. To evaluate the sustainability of equipment, consider these 5 core factors: A personal tip: think outside the box. Don’t opt for the standard, instead choose what benefits you. For example, nowadays, very short 10×2.1 mm cartridge columns in HPLC systems are available. They save up to 88% of running time and 70% of solvent. However, they come with a lower resolution. If you need peaks as sharp as possible this is nothing for you. If you use an LC-MS system, broader peaks are not an issue, however, saving time, money and waste is. | Ultimately, the question is whether we want to embrace optimization or stick with the conventional. You want to learn more about how to make laboratories sustainable by enhancing workflows?Then sign up for our weekly “Sustainability Snack” that outlines case studies, helpful tools and step-by-step guides for free.
Saving >62% Plastic Waste in SDS-PAGEs
Imagine you could save the weight of a chocolate bar in plastic every time you conduct an experiment! Today I want to convince you that this is certainly possible. Let us discover how much waste we can save every time we prepare an SDS-PAGE, a rather short and straightforward protocol – nevertheless, there is a lot of potential for optimization! Work Smart, Not Hard Always create as many gels as possible and as few as necessary. This means that if you are planning to run multiple SDS-PAGEs within the next week, prepare 2 or 4 gels at a time.-> Advantage: This will halve or reduce to a quarter the amount of waste and time used. Following The Right Order Use the following pipetting order from dedicated stocks to reuse one serological pipette instead of three (cutting your waste by one-third): Ensure the volumes for each are large enough to pipette conveniently.-> You cut your waste by one-third and save the time required to exchange pipettes. Note: Be sure to use best practices and expel the liquid completely. The risk of contamination is minimal since you only take up fluid (without mixing), and this wouldn’t be a concern anyway, as you use dedicated stocks. However, we still aim to work as carefully as possible. For SDS, 10% | N,N,N′,N′-tetramethylethylenediamine (TEMED) | Ammonium persulfate (APS), you use a single tip for each. Traditional Approach Sustainable Approach 28.323 g vs. 10.383 g -> 63% reduction Keep Them With You Each time you reuse your Falcon tubes (Tris buffers, acrylamide – SDS is often stored in a single 15 mL tube, APS and TEMED in smaller tubes), you cut down your waste even further. For us, reusing them for half a year has never caused any issues. However, for simplicity, let’s assume you reuse them 10 times: Traditional Approach Sustainable Approach 384.9 g vs. 38.5 g -> 90% savings = Combined, these measures save more than 350 g of plastic, equivalent to the weight of 3.5 chocolate bars – just in plastic waste! Note: We need 2x 50 mL tubes to mix our gels, so for each approach, add 25.66 g of waste to the total. Bonus TipHow do you know when your gel has polymerized sufficiently?Since it is advisable to prepare a bit of excess solution in case you spill something or your apparatus is not entirely sealed, keep this remainder in your preparation tube. You will know the gel has polymerized when the leftover solution sets.(Of note, polymerized gel is much less toxic than the liquid form, so never discard it into the sink!) You can then leave the gel in the tube or throw it out later and reuse the tube. If you remove the gel, just be gentle and ensure no clumps are left behind. If in doubt, it’s better to discard the tube! Weight of Items We Used (varies by manufacturer)