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)
Reducing Energy Consumption In Laboratories
The university of Cambridge spent approximately 19 million pounds on energy in 2018. On average, about 60-75% of all energy is consumed by laboratories. Therefore, these steps, can significantly cut down on energy consumption while maintaining high standards of research and operation: 1. Develop a Comprehensive Energy Plan Pro Tip: Optimize Equipment Readiness: Measure how long it takes for your equipment to get ready and share this information in a collaborative Excel sheet with your team. This will help you plan better and avoid leaving equipment running longer than necessary. 2. Smart Purchasing Decisions 3. Optimize Settings Pic energy consumption from last time pdf with S-labs consumption of HVAC vs others 4. Efficient Equipment Usage 5. Regular Maintenance 6. Collaborative Sharing 7. Optimize Equipment
The Shortest Complete List of Sustainable Actions
This list is certainly not exhaustive since scientists come up with new amazing practices to make their laboratories more sustainable every day. However, here is as much inspiration as we can give: Reducing waste Improving experimental conduct and design Reducing paper, water and energy use Paper Water Energy Changing procurement and purchasing processes Using equipment Optimizing waste treatment Changing for internal organization Involving institute governance Optimizing HVAC
Ask Me Anything – 10 Questions About Sustainability Answered
Question 1: I work with animals, mice to be precise. Are there best practices or opportunities to be more sustainable? 1. Optimize Experimental Design Minimize: the number of animals used by ensuring experiments have sufficient statistical power and address specific research questions effectively. This reduces unnecessary animal usage and associated costs. 2. Consider Breeding Practices: Efficient breeding strategies are essential, especially for genetically modified mice, to avoid unnecessary surplus animals and overwork for researchers. 3. Reduce Waste and Resource Consumption: Implement practices to minimize waste generation, such as composting animal bedding, which requires coordination but can significantly reduce environmental impact. 4. Balance Sterility and Reduction: Do not impair cleanliness levels in animal facilities but plan your stay (potentially with coworkers) to reduce the amount of personal protective equipment worn. 5. Optimize Experimental Procedures: Streamline laboratory protocols to minimize resource usage, such as reducing pipette tip consumption or maximizing cell yield from harvested organs. Literature: Some ideas for optimizing statistics: A / B / C Question 2: What is possible to make more sustainable when it comes to experiments? 1. Review Experimental Strategies: Did you optimize statistics in terms of power and significance? Do you have a solid strategy, e.g., efficient implementation of controls or avoiding using painkillers without known mechanisms as controls. 2. Implement the Six R’s: Focus on reducing and reusing materials. For instance, pipette tips can be reused by pipetting water before DNA, and wash solutions can be prepared directly in petri dishes to minimize tube usage. Also, consider using the same culture dish for routine passaging after thorough validation. Sometimes it is possible to pour wash-solutions instead of pipetting them etc. 3. Method Optimization: It depends very much on your set-up, e.g., investigate greener methods such as HPLC-MS, which streamline workflows and require fewer sample preparations. Consider using alternative eluents like ethanol instead of acetonitrile, although potential drawbacks like increased HPLC pressure and altered UV cutoff must be considered. In the live event I mentioned: 6R and some inspiration for HPLC Question 3: What is meant by regulation in sustainability? Regulation in sustainability refers to laws and requirements set by national or supranational entities, such as the European Union, that compel organizations to report on their sustainability efforts and adhere to certain standards. Currently, this primarily affects industries and companies, but there’s a possibility it may extend to academic research laboratories in the future. For companies, compliance with sustainability regulations may involve the creation of sustainability reports, which are becoming as critical as financial statements. The EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) may necessitate reporting on a wide range of data points, potentially exceeding 1,000. In laboratories, sustainability regulation may require reporting on activities and environmental impacts, such as Scope 3 emissions from procurement and purchasing. Sustainability officers or designated personnel may be tasked with collecting and managing this data. Regulation can also influence purchasing decisions, potentially requiring organizations to consider sustainability factors when acquiring products or chemicals, akin to current hiring practices where equal opportunities are provided to all applicants. You can watch our previous event on that topic as well : ) Question 4: We need administration to join in. But how? 1. Regulation and Reporting Waiting for regulations to mandate sustainability reporting or initiatives can provide a framework for administration involvement (unfortunate but true…) 2. Grassroots Initiatives Scientists and staff can actively prompt administration by demonstrating the value and feasibility of sustainability initiatives. By proactively suggesting and implementing sustainability measures, staff can show administration the potential benefits and garner support for broader initiatives. 3. Align with Administrative Priorities Tailoring sustainability initiatives to align with administrative priorities can help garner support. For example, emphasizing the educational value of sustainability initiatives can appeal to universities focused on teaching and education. Demonstrating cost savings, reduced maintenance or risk reduction associated with sustainability measures can be quite powerful. However, sometimes, personal buy-in can be sufficient. E.g., an amazing colleague called Star Scott has convinced administration by making them emotionally involved after sharing that their lab waste ended up in nearby socially disadvantaged communities. Question 5: What are Carbon Credits? Carbon credits are a form of tradable permit or certificate that represents the right to emit one ton of carbon dioxide or an equivalent amount of greenhouse gases. They are a mechanism used to offset emissions by investing in projects that reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions elsewhere. Here’s how carbon credits typically (should) work: 1. Emission Reduction Projects: Carbon offset projects can take various forms, such as reforestation, renewable energy generation, methane capture from landfills, or energy efficiency initiatives. These projects are implemented to either reduce or remove greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere. 2. Certification and Verification: Once a project is implemented, it undergoes a certification process to ensure that it meets certain standards and criteria set by various carbon offsetting organizations. 3. Issuance of Carbon Credits: Upon successful verification, carbon credits are issued to the project based on the amount of emissions reduced or removed. Each carbon credit typically represents one ton of carbon dioxide equivalent (tCO2e) that has been mitigated by the project. 4. Trading and Sale Carbon: credits can be bought and sold on carbon markets, allowing companies or individuals to offset their own emissions by purchasing credits generated by emission reduction projects. 5. Offsetting Emissions: By purchasing carbon credits, companies or individuals can offset their own carbon footprint, effectively neutralizing their emissions by investing in projects that mitigate emissions elsewhere. However, while carbon credits are intended to incentivize emission reductions and support sustainable development initiatives, there are huge issues with their effectiveness and integrity: 1. Additionality: There are many example where some carbon offset projects may not be additional, meaning they would have occurred anyway even without the sale of carbon credits. This raises questions about the real environmental impact of offsetting activities. 2. Longevity: Some offset projects, such as reforestation, face challenges related to permanence. For example, a forest that is planted to sequester carbon could be subject to deforestation in
3 Overlooked Benefits Of Publishing With A Society Journal
By Patrick Penndorf TL;DR In contrast to commercial journals run by publishers such as Nature or Science, Society Journals are run by practicing scientists within nonprofit research organizations. Therefore: • The editors in Society Journals are empathetic to the situation of researchers, prioritizing improvement of manuscripts instead of excessive requests. This is also why they organize handpicked peer review to assure valuable feedback. • Society Journals publish work dedicated to a certain field. They have a focused audience that is more likely to cite your work instead of just reading it. • Publishing with a Society Journal is a guarantee that your paper is treated properly (reliably accessible, listed in major databases, securely available on servers in the future, feasible APCs). Any profit a Society Journals makes, goes back as an investment into the scientific community for example in the form of workshops for early career scientists, scholarships or conference organization. Publish or Perish – A Personal Confession A few centuries ago, one would read about all important new advances in a handful of printed journals. Nowadays, it’s all about Googling and trying to handle the multitude of publications coming out every day. Due to the growth of the scientific community, Impact Factor became the one and only consideration for many scientists. I can still remember that when I pursued my PhD at a Max Planck research group in Germany, I did not even consider publishing anywhere but in Science or Nature. Why? Because I was naive. I did not know society journals existed until 3 years after I started to volunteer in societies! Of course, outstanding findings that are of interest to various fields at once should be published in high Impact Factor Journals such as Nature or Science. However, trying to publish any work there will harm ones career a lot. Why Society Journals are Valuable Instead of knocking your teeth out and spending 3 more years until your paper might be published in a high-impact factor journal without reaching its proper audience or going with a vanity journal in which peer review is practically nonexistent, simply getting the paper off your back – you can publish with a Society Journal. Society Journals are run by Scientists for Scientists. They are embedded in nonprofit research organizations. This is why they prioritize scientific rigor and insight instead of making money. They are the gatekeepers to great science with a clearly focused scope. They publish work for a dedicated audience, and thus, valuing robust data and research effort more than Impact Factor. Unfortunately, Society Journals do not undertake the marketing activity to reach as many people as Nature or Science. Undoubtably, Society Journals deliver a lot of value. However, they are run by scientists who do not feel comfortable doing marketing. Not even when it would be appropriate. To my mind, Society Journals can be the diamond in the rough – and soon the “gold” rush might begin so let’s get you informed about the 3 overseen benefits of publishing with a society journal: Publishing to a Relevant Community Probably the most important metric these days is how many people cite your publication. This is not the same as how many people see your publication. If you have me as a university student read about your science in Nature, you certainly made my day more enjoyable, but you will not receive a citation in return. Throughout the decades of their existence, Society Journals have built a dedicated community of the core scientists within a particular field. Of course, the younger generations of scientists are totally focused on publishing high-impact factor, forgetting that a high IF is calculated for an entire journal. It says nothing whether your paper will be cited at all. The key question is, whom do you want to know about your work – a large crowd or a dedicated audience in a particular field? Societies such as the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology will not promote your work to scientists working in neurophysiology but it will give you access to researchers in your field all over the world. Ensuring Your Paper is Handled Properly We as scientists invest years of work into a publication. Long nights, frustration, unexpected pivots… Our work becomes somewhat of a darling to us. Therefore, we need to protect our dear child from being abducted or mistreated. Whenever you publish with a society journal, you can be sure that you did not fall prey to a vanity journal or a predatory publisher. This is crucially important because you can be sure that your paper is treated properly. That means it will be accessible to readers, findable in the common databases, and it will be stored as long as the internet exists. With most predatory publishers, all that counts is the money you pay them. On which server your paper ends up is less than certain. Furthermore, if your paper ends up in a Journal that is mostly predatory, who will trust your work? Society Journals have such a great reputation because of a reason: Rigor in Review Would you like to have ChatGPT as your peer reviewer? Peer review is paramount to create trust and reliability, but it can also lead to tremendous headaches if done improperly. Society Journals do not allow for shortcuts. However, they make sure you will actually receive useful comments because your reviewers will be handpicked. This kind of peer review is often a great chance to actually find out what is needed to have your colleagues actually cite your paper. Of note, rigor also excludes excess. One of the most interesting papers I have ever read turned out to be 40% based on peer review comments (it took the lab 1-2 years to work on this additional data). This will not happen to you. Society Journals do not intend to change your work. You will not be stuck with years of additional work. Finally, let us talk about the editors. Your editor will most likely