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):
Water
Low molecular Tris buffer
High molecular Tris buffer
Acrylamide
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
10 mL serological pipette: 3x = 26.91 g
P1000 tip: 1x = 0.755 g
P200 tip: 2x = 0.329 g
Sustainable Approach
10 mL serological pipette: 1x = 8.97 g
P1000 tip: 1x = 0.755 g
P200 tip: 2x = 0.329 g
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
50 mL tube: 10x*3 = 384.9 g
Sustainable Approach
50 mL tube: 1x*3 = 38.5 g
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 Tip How 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)
10 mL pipette: 8.97 g
P1000 tip: 0.755 g
P200 tip: 0.329 g
50 mL tube: 12.83 g
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
Schedule Machine Usage: Create a clear plan for when to turn machines on and off. Coordinate with your lab mates to decide on the best times to power down, use standby modes, or keep equipment running.
Define Shutdown Protocols: Establish clear rules, such as “Turn off directly after use,” “Ask before turning off,” “Never turn off,” or “Turn off if you’re the last person leaving the lab.” This ensures everyone is on the same page, reducing unnecessary energy use.
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
Choose Energy-Efficient Equipment: When purchasing new equipment, prioritize models with lower energy consumption. Look for certifications like the ACT label and Energy Star, which indicate high efficiency and lower environmental impact.
3. Optimize Settings
Adjust Temperature Settings: Reconsider the temperature settings on your -80°C freezers, refrigerators, and air conditioning units.
Collaborate with Building Administration: Work with your building administration and HVAC personnel to optimize temperature settings and air exchanges.
Fine-Tune Experimental Settings: During experiments, review your settings to ensure they are energy-efficient. This includes scanning areas for microscopy or test runs to establish optimal settings.
Pic energy consumption from last time pdf with S-labs consumption of HVAC vs others
4. Efficient Equipment Usage
Choose the Right Piece of Equipment: For example, the appropriate centrifuge for your needs—smaller models often consume less energy.
Maximize Dishwasher and Autoclave Efficiency: Only operate dishwashers and autoclaves when they are full, reducing the number of cycles and saving energy.
Upgrade Software and Packages: Look for newer, more efficient software or packages that require less processing power.
Optimize Server and Storage Usage: Make conscious choices about which servers to use and explore ways to save on hard drive space.
5. Regular Maintenance
Keep Equipment Well-Maintained: Regularly clean equipment, change necessary filters, and ensure refrigeration coils and door seals on refrigerators and freezers are clean and functioning efficiently.
Declutter your Lab: Periodically check your samples and reagents, discarding anything you no longer need. This reduces the load on your storage equipment and improves overall efficiency.
6. Collaborative Sharing
Share Laboratory Equipment: Partner with other departments to share equipment. This not only saves on energy by reducing the number of instruments running but also cuts costs by sharing expenses with other research groups.
When starting a new experimental series, try to involve collaborators to conduct test runs to validate hypotheses before establishing new methods in your lab
7. Optimize Equipment
Use Multi-Plugs and Smart Plugs: Employ multi-plugs or smart plugs to easily turn off ovens, water baths, and other equipment during inactivity. Automated on/off cycles can also ensure equipment isn’t left running unnecessarily.
Improve Equipment Efficiency: Use covers for water baths and replace oil baths with more efficient alternatives like metal heating blocks or modern oil pumps. These small changes can lead to significant energy savings over time.
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
Choosing providers that avoid unnecessary packaging or opt for more easily degradable solutions like paper
Reducing plastic waste within the laboratory can be achieved by:
Using alternatives such as glass or metal items for flasks, dishes, serological pipettes and weighing boards
Minimizing the size of consumables (especially tubes, serological pipettes, pipette tips)
Pouring solutions where precises volumes are not decisive (e.g., washing steps)
Reusing Falcon tubes, potentially after rinsing, especially for frequently used solutions
Reusing pipette tips, tubes where cross-contamination is not an issue
Precise calculation and bulk preparation of reagents and solutions
Conscious use of gloves
Making use of take-back programs for plastic items, including Styrofoam
Improving experimental conduct and design
Proper experimental planning can be achieved by:
Leveraging existing literature to avoid redundant experiments
Robust statistical planning (especially power analysis) help reduce sample sizes and enhance statistical validity
Carefully chosen experimental conditions with proper controls
Reviewing consumable utilization ahead of conduct (including material, size and number of consumables)
Preparation procedures (e.g., optimizing pipetting schemes and master-mixes to reuse tips and tubes)
Adopting safer and more benign alternatives for commonly used reagents in experiments (e.g., DNA staining solutions, microscopic slide mounting agents, lysing agents, or protease inhibitors)
Alternative experimental approaches (e.g., using Supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC) to avoid organic solvents needed in HPLC)
Consider potential for downstream use or regeneration (e.g., regeneration of nucleic acid extraction columns)
Implementing strategies and frameworks to ensure best practices (e.g., handling pipettes upright when pipetting)
Awareness of toxicity of reagents in use for proper handling and discarding (e.g., including closing lids to avoid evaporation)
Initiating collaboration with:
Colleagues in co-preparation of solutions, sharing of samples or co-use of machines (e.g., water baths)
Other groups to share equipment
Core facilities or partners to avoid unnecessary establishment of new methods
Implementing the 12 rules of Green Chemistry, including
Conscious solvent and reagent selection (according to safety, LCA and impact assessment, e.g., Ethanol instead of Acetonitrile)
Optimize procedures by using catalyzers and reducing resource-intensive processes like heating or distillation
Using renewable feedstock and designing products for degradation
Refining computational experiments by:
Adapting practices that reduce running times and optimize code efficiency
Considering relocating computational tasks to energy-efficient data centers
Planning to run jobs during times of low demand
Implementing checkpointing strategies to streamline computational processes and reduce unnecessary energy consumption
Storing only essential data for regenerating large datasets, reducing energy demands and use hard drives instead of cloud-storage only
Avoiding using screensavers to minimize needless energy consumption
Selecting energy-efficient hardware especially when buying anew
Reducing paper, water and energy use
Paper
Transition to digital sources like electronic lab journaling and online publications
When printing is necessary, using recycled paper and opt for double-sided printing on previously used paper
Water
Minimize water use, for example by soaking steps and mechanical cleaning
Consciously discern water types (tap, distilled, double distilled etc.)
Use only as much ice as needed
Energy
Regularly organizing and cleaning digital inboxes to prevent unnecessary data storage
Maintain a tidy system for experimental data, avoiding unnecessary duplication and keeping a safety copy securely stored on a hard drive
Exercise caution with AI technologies and use of search engines due to their potential high energy consumption
Evaluating the necessity of video in online meetings and switch to audio-only when possible to minimize data and energy usage
Keeping laboratory fume hood sashes shut and turn machines off when not in use (e.g., water baths)
Setting PCR-Holding Temperature to 12°C or higher
Changing procurement and purchasing processes
Planning orders carefully by:
Creating an internal system to track chemical inventory and consumable supplies to minimize unnecessary orders
Collaborating with other laboratories or facilities to collect orders
Choosing products consciously by:
Procuring items in quantities aligned with future usage
Emphasizing sustainable packaging practices, favoring minimal material usage and biodegradable materials where possible
Opting for specific shipping methods and alternatives to conventional cooling methods (e.g., when ordering polymerases without cooling or oligos dry)
Thoroughly evaluating feasible alternatives based on certifications, life cycle analyses, and sustainability practices
Choosing the optimal supplier:
Preferring local suppliers to reduce transportation-related emissions and dependency on global supply routes
Preferring certified suppliers and articles
Exploring take-back programs and consider second-hand purchases to enhance sustainable procurement practices
Using equipment
Choose instruments with reference to:
lifetime (e.g., photomultiplier tubes have longer lifetimes)
capacity (e.g., volume of sterilizers & autoclaves)
components (using low-boiling-point solvents in air-cooled condensers to reduce energy consumption)
Running equipment that
Minimizes reagent use (e.g., Nitrogen consumption in MS or HPLC columns with smaller inner diameter to reduce solvent consumption and waste creation)
Enables change to more sustainable alternatives (Hydrogen as carrier gas instead of He in GC/MS)
Enables internal reuse (e.g., automated recycling of the mobile phase for example after absorption of the impurities)
Making a conscious choice about what methodology to use (e.g., wet vs dry blotting, on site analysis, high throughput analysis, combination techniques such as LC-MS)
Exercising best practices (e.g., not let elution fractions from chromatography columns evaporate or using all spots on matrix array plates for MS, putting as many samples on one microscopy slide as possible)
Being aware of the robustness of methods (e.g., ability to reuse TLC capillaries after rinsing)
Reducing energy use by:
Developing an energy plan, i.e., when to turn on and off individual machines
Using strategies like multi-plugs to turn off ovens and water baths during inactivity or employing smart plugs for automated on/off cycles
Considering carefully how you use equipment (settings including scanning area in microscopy)
Modifying freezer temperatures, such as increasing from -80 to -70
Using covers for water baths and replace oil baths with more efficient alternatives like metal heating blocks or efficient oil pumps
Operating dishwashers and autoclaves only at full capacity
Consciously choosing levels for the A/C set-up
Reducing water use by:
Implementing low-flow aerators to conserve water
Using closed-cycle cooling systems and waterless liquid-cooled condensers with low-boiling-point solvents as an alternative to single-pass cooling methods
Optimizing waste treatment
Making sure that evaporating waste is handled properly (e.g., stored in a hood or closed container)
Using old jerry cans/flasks/container as waste containers (or already contaminated tubes)
Create a plan how to handle cooling packs, animal bedding, Styrofoam etc
Establishing education and indication systems (e.g., exhaustive stickers on waste bins, using and a database with necessary educational resources)
Repairing broken glassware and old pipettes
Changing for internal organization
Exploring “Smart-Lab” innovations to monitor and quantify lab processes (e.g., monitoring old freezers to control failures or assess energy consumptions)
Have open conversations and discussion in lab meetings
Reusing Labcoats
Freeing and optimizing use of lab-space by:
Only buying/installing equipment that is certainly needed
Promoting the use of spacing or energy saving alternatives e.g. ventilated storage cabinets instead of fume hoods for storage
Encouraging the removal of unused equipment
Involving institute governance
Creating clear guidelines, regulations or position papers
Creating a position for a Sustainability Manager/Green Lab Expert
Conscious assessment of space use and encouraging shared utilization of equipment
Consciously choosing 3rd parties (e.g., for waste treatment or power providers)
Initiating conversations with cafeteria staff to explore ways to mitigate their carbon footprint
Optimizing HVAC
Adjusting and decreasing air flow within laboratory spaces during periods of inactivity at night or during vacations
Prioritizing smart design principles when constructing new laboratories (e.g., including proper insulation, strategic window and vent placement, strategic placement and employment of emergency power systems)
Precisely reviewing and setting A/C levels
Organizing freezer placement and air conditioning systems properly to ensure efficient air circulation
Removing or replacing energy inefficient equipment (e.g., sucking pumps)
An Introduction To Sustainable Procurement: A Scientist’s Guide to Purchasing Greener Items For The Laboratory
By Patrick Penndorf
Procurement. In other words, the process of purchasing items and services for your laboratory.
When I first delved into the world of procurement, I was met with a lot of complex jargon and convoluted advice. It felt confused and uncertain about my next step.
Therefore, let me share what I have learned to help you make sense of this topic:
If you do not want to read the entire article, here is my key take-away: As everything related to sustainability in science, sustainable procurement is about prioritizing differently. Instead of choosing the easiest solution, it is about balancing environmental, societal and economical impacts. It always comes at a cost (time, effort, risk) upfront but will pay off in the long turn.
Why Procurement Matters
Did you know that a significant chunk of laboratory emissions stems from purchasing? One Preprint found that up to 56% of laboratory missions can be attributed to procurement alone.
Also, more regulations that require companies to report about their footprints are released. Especially the EU is moving quickly (e.g., CSRD). Even for academic laboratories such obligations could be a reality soon. Their universities, funding bodies or the government might ask for such data.
Still, it not just about saving the planet; there are tangible cost savings too. Companies like Unilever, Pepsico, and Nike have saved millions by optimizing their procurement processes ($1.2 Billion, $60 and $50 million respectively).
But What Is SUSTAINABLE Procurement?
Sustainable procurement is revisiting and shifting our purchasing priorities to make it about more than just buying what fits. It is about valuing environmental, social, and economic factors as well.
There are 8 “factors” that in my opinion explain well what it means to prioritize sustainability (and to make this section not too dry, I will add a bit of black humor to illustrate what it should NOT look like):
Effectiveness – buying what (actually) align with your organization’s goals. “You said DNA-Prep Kits, I understood NEW COFFEE MACHINE“
Efficiency – reducing expenses, emissions and environmental damage to a minimum. “Although it took 8 months for my product to arrive, it at least has seen every continent on earth – I am so proud!”
Competitive Openness – inviting (all) suppliers to compete for the best offer (in terms of price as well as environmental impacts). “No need for tedious online research, my friend is assembling CRISPR Kits in his garage”
Transparency – you should know and share where your products come from, how they’re made, and what their environmental footprint looks like. “Phh that number is so long it could be my phone number, just put into in the supplementary of the additional information in the attachments”
Fairness – avoiding discrimination of certain providers and contributing to proper cooperation. “I hate their logo, this blue tone is off-putting, they are out!”
Accountability – holding both yourself and your suppliers accountable for ethical practices, whether it’s fair labor conditions or responsible sourcing of materials. “I think Tony messed up again … but anyway, he is paying for the beer so don’t mess with him!”
Responsibility – recognizing the broader impact of your procurement choices. “Environmental exploration – I would be glad if that would finally happen here so they could start building this new highway…”
Independence – making purchasing decisions based on objective criteria rather than external influences or biases (e.g., from single stakeholders). “But the oracle (aka my neighbor who works at this company) has forsaken that this is going to be the new gold-standard in a few years”
Independence – making purchasing decisions based on objective criteria rather than external influences or biases (e.g., from single stakeholders). “But the oracle (aka my neighbor who works at this company) has forsaken that this is going to be the new gold-standard in a few years”
But In How Far Does That Relate To The Laboratory?
Most changes in your procurement have to happen in alignment with your laboratory. And some can only be sparked there. To provide some examples, here are four of them:
Collaboration and Resource Sharing
Reduction is king. Before making a purchase, explore opportunities for collaboration or resource sharing. Can you partner with other labs to share equipment or borrow chemicals? Setting up an excel or designated chat/Email Group to inquire can be helpful for larger institutes.
Reduce delivery footprints through collective purchasing and bulk orders, especially in institutions with multiple labs. By pooling resources and purchasing in bulk, you can not only save costs but also reduce packaging waste. And for laboratories with smaller financial resources, it might be the only way to afford some especially expensive antibodies or equipment.
Reviewing Procurement Practices
Do you need to reorder, or can you reuse? Some columns can be recovered, while tubes for commonly needed solutions can be reused. Instead of purchasing entire DNA isolation kits, reuse collection tubes to safe money and only buy the columns (QIAGEN offers that for example).
Especially for academic laboratories, mindful organization and distribution of laboratory are often lacking. Keep track of expiration dates and where stocks are kept. This will save a lot of time and money. Also, multiple people accepting deliveries an putting items in various storage locations can result in items getting lost. Software and systems for inventory management are available (even for free) – and sometimes an excel sheet will do too.
Exploring Innovation And Alternatives for Solvents & Reagents
Explore which new items and equipment exist to save energy, chemicals and resources. Some MS and HPLC machines already use less chemicals/eluents and need less energy. Eppendorf produces tubes made to 90% out of plant oil waste streams.
Especially for laboratories in the bioeconomy, can you repurpose waste streams or adopt alternative methods that require fewer resources?
Make use of resources such as the solvent guide from the University of Pennsylvania to identify sustainable alternatives for commonly used solvents. Get informed about the 12 principles of green chemistry. Software such as the DOZN Tool make it easier to optimize experimental procedures (solvent choice, reaction conditions, and waste minimization strategies etc).
Finding Better Options To Order Your Products
Look for suppliers offering eco-friendly alternatives for the items you need. As mentioned, consider bio-based products like Eppendorf tubes made from recycled plant oil waste streams.
Shift your focus towards suppliers that prioritize sustainable delivery methods and packaging materials. Vendors like NEB, utilize paper and hemp-based products instead of traditional plastic for packaging. Additionally, inquire about innovative shipping practices, such as sending items at ambient temperatures to minimize the need for cooling materials (especially ice packs) and insulation (available e.g., for primers).
Also, what happens to your items “downstream” is a factor to be considered. Opt for items with eco-friendly disposal options, such as paper cartridges from Labcon instead of traditional plastic counterparts. Additionally, suppliers like Rainin offer easily recyclable pipette tip boxes. Others offer to take back your waste (but take care, some of them just discard it themselves and thereby cause a higher footprint due to additional transport).
Let’s Be Honest
While the principles might seem straightforward at first glance, putting them into action can be a complicated task.
Sustainable procurement isn’t just about being eco-friendly; it’s about finding the delicate balance between environmental, economic, and social considerations.
Can you trust all claims made? Theoretically, certification should help you make the decision. We give some tips and introduce the top 5 most important certifications in another article of ours.
And we cannot forget, all change inherently involves risk. What if the new product or supplier that seems to be of superior quality doesn’t deliver in time?
To make it easier for you, here is an actionable plan. It also summarizes the information from above:
A Five-Step Roadmap To Get Started
1. Awareness & Assessment
Begin by actively trying to understand what sustainable procurement entails. Understand the environmental, economical and social impacts associated with the items and services you procure. Assess your current procurement practices (i.e., everything that you did not consider to be important so far). So far, it is not about finding solutions, just to get used to take the knowledge from this article and translate it to your laboratory. Also, you will discover more as you go along, no need to get paralyzed at this step.
2. Learning & Identification
This is the most painful step – it takes time to learn about sustainability and alternatives available in the market. Explore different products, suppliers, and procurement practices step by step. Often, it is 50% active search and 50% keeping an open mind to notice interesting alternatives (here, the algorithms suggestion you solutions can become your friend) Educate not only yourself but leverage your team as well – again, remind them that there is a lot of money to be saved.
3. Prioritization
There is no perfectly sustainable procurement. You need to find what is most important to you and where you are ready to take a step back. Consider whether certain purchases are essential. Evaluate the importance of factors such as environmental impact, supply chain ethics, and end-of-life considerations for you personally (or your laboratory or company). This will also depend on your circumstances, i.e., which possibilities and freedom you have.
4. Balancing Risks & Testing
Each and every change comes at a risk. Recognize that transitioning to sustainable procurement will involve uncertainties too. No perfect solutions available. Conduct thorough risk assessments before implementing changes. If possible test alternative products or practices on a small scale to gauge their effectiveness and reliability. And do not be disappointed if some alternatives seem just to risky. Times will change and at the start of new projects, changes are implemented more easily.
5. Reporting, KPIs & Maintenance
Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the impact of sustainable procurement efforts. Develop a reporting framework to track progress and communicate achievements internally and externally. Stay informed about emerging regulations and industry standards related to sustainability reporting. Regularly review and update procurement practices to maintain alignment with sustainability goals.
If this article contained any useful information for you, you can always join our weekly lessons, live events for free: https://forms.gle/iGkDKX4XDRTUnsRVA
Or you can follow us on social media where we share these lessons in bit-sized chunks: https://linktr.ee/readvance
Finally, if you want to see some real-life examples of how to go through websites from providers, you can watch our recording (and there you can also see me in person ; )
Top 5 Certifications For Scientists To Know About
Optimizing procurement strategies can be challenging. Searching for greener products and suppliers is not straightforward.
Although it is impossible to get a hang of all certification out there, 5 questions can help you to get a good feeling:
A) What do they assess? i.e., carbon footprints or working conditions | processes or products?
B) Who is doing them? i.e., independent assessments?
C) How is the assessment conducted? i.e., On site or Desktop (latter refers to companies is simply submitting documents to be reviewed)
D) How often it has to be renewed? i.e., how long is the certification valid?
E) How difficult is it to score well or how impactful are changes that lead to successful certification i.e., are requirements meaningful and actually require “above average” change?
The last question is obviously somewhat subjective and depends a lot on what you are looking for. Furthermore, it will vary in which year and which company size you look at. Therefore, we leave it up to you to make your decision ; )
Here are 5 of the most important certifications and assessments to know about:
A) ISO certifications such as ISO 14001 for environmental protection, ISO 50001 for energy management, and ISO 14064 for greenhouse gas emissions, evaluate specific aspects of environmentally aspects. However, ISO certifications are also available for other aspects.
B) Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) oversee ISO certifications, ensuring compliance with international standards.
C) ISO certifications involve both on-site assessments and desktop evaluations to verify adherence to standards.
D) ISO certifications typically require renewal every three years.
A) The Act Label, initiated by My Green Lab, attempts to evaluates the footprint of laboratory equipment from consumables, equipment to chemicals and reagents.
B) This certification is given out by My Green Lab, a non-profit organization in corporation with the SMS Collaborative, LLC. which is Limited liability company which has been acquired by Parallel another LLC for sustainability strategies.
C) The Act Label only involves desktop assessments to evaluate sustainability practices within labs.
D) Renewal of The Act Label certification occurs annually.
A) ISCC is an independent multi-stakeholder initiative that assesses sustainability and carbon certification across various industries. They offer multiple certifications such as ISCC Carbon Footprint Certification for Carbon footprint certification across a value chains or ISCC PLUS for the bioeconomy and circular economy for food, feed, chemicals etc.
B) Associate bodies of ISCC oversee the certification process, ensuring adherence to sustainability standards.
C) The need for on-site assessments varies depending on the risk factors associated with the industry or organization.
D) ISCC certification typically requires annual renewal.
A) Energy Star certification is geared towards products, buildings, heating & cooling systems assessing their energy efficiency and environmental impact.
B) The Energy Star program is a government initiative aimed at promoting energy-efficient products. It is run program run by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Therefore, it only can received in Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Switzerland, United States while there have been agreements with countries in the EU.
C) Energy Star certification involves a verification program to assess product energy efficiency, typically conducted through desktop evaluations.
D) Renewal of Energy Star certification is required annually.
