Pillars

The activities of the network will be delivered through 4 pillars – please make a selection to learn more:

In the era of carbon budgets and nationally declared contributions, actions that reduce energy use within labs are increasingly recognised as opportunities for organisations to help meet local and national carbon reduction pledges. The collective emissions generated in the manufacture and use of large pieces of lab equipment in particular, can amount to 30-50% of energy draw of, for example, a university campus. In a recently published article from Ireland’s Marine Institute, two walk-in freezers were reported to use approximately 22,000 kwh per annum¹, nearly six times the 4,200 kwh used each year by the average Irish household².

In a S-Labs Workshop event held in Imperial College London in June 2019, Allison Hunter reported that 17.6 kwh are used per -80 freezer, per day, translating into an annual consumption of 6,424 kwh per freezer. A copy of her report is freely available via the S-Labs website. Click here to access presentation slides³. The University of Colorado Boulder, provides a helpful guide to choosing a low temperature storage unit, including advice on fridges freezers. Visit this site for more information.

HVAC systems (heating/ventilation/air-conditioning) are a major energy draw in labs. In her presentation to the first My Green Lab summit, held in march 2020, Alison Farmer explained that HVAC uses 50-75%, while lab equipment uses 20-25% and lighting, 10-15%. In addition to the freezers discussed above, fume hoods consume huge amounts of energy. When staff at Ireland’s Marine Institute installed ChemtrapTM filtration systems, enabling a switching off of vented hoods, this led to 40% energy savings1.

References

1. 1. Kilcoyne J, Bogan Y, Duffy C, Hollowell T (2022) Reducing environmental impacts of marine biotoxin monitoring: A laboratory report. PLOS Sustain Transform e0000001. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pstr.0000001 .
2. 2. Commission for Regulation of Utilities Fact Sheet: Domestic Electricity and Gas Bills in Ireland (2020). https://www.cru.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/CRU20125-Factsheet-Domestic-Electricity-and-Gas-Bills-in-Ireland-CRU20125.pdf
3. 3. S-Labs Sustainability Workshop (2019).
   Imperial Sustainable Labs presentations, 19^th June, 2019. Shared Dropbox folder; https://www.dropbox.com/sh/qnecrnr9u29sa6p/AAA2OHJOu2ZwmkHTKNQtFxhGa/Imperial%20Sustainable%20Labs%20Presentations%20%26%20Videos%20June%202019?dl=0

Water is a precious commodity that is managed in the Republic of Ireland by the semi-state body, Irish Water. Its importance is beautifully illustrated in the ‘Story of Water’ documentary (click here to view). The Irish Lab community is at an early stage of efforts to reduce water usage in labs. De-ionised water and water baths will be found in most labs, but more specialist condensers and cooling systems are more common in chemistry labs. Useful information on how to reduce the use of water within labs is available via websites outside Ireland. For example, the University of Boulder Colorado’s Green Lab program recommends the use of waterless condensers for chemistry synthesis reactions, water misers on autoclaves, leading to a possible 90% reduction in water used. Low flow aerators are also recommended for lab sinks. Click here for more details.

There is little need to persuade the lab greening community that waste reduction should be a major focus. All lab protocols and processes can be said to generate waste in one form or another. For example, the manufacture of lab products and equipment generates greenhouse gas emissions, their use in the lab may do the same. End-of-lab-product-life is another waste contributor. The five Rs of Reduce, Reuse, Repair, Recycle, Rot are a useful prompt for best practices. For typical example of wasted single-use plastic lab products, see Fig. 1.

A superb example of reduced use of plastics in a microbiology lab was published by staff in the world-renowned Roslin Institute¹. Staff catalogued and tracked the use of seven single-use plastics, to define the baseline, before substituting some for non-plastic alternatives e.g., metal inoculation loops and wooden inoculation sticks replaced plastic versions. A detailed protocol for decontamination, washing and sterilising selected plasticware for reuse, was also provided. This approach led to a 43 kg reduction in plastic waste by seven microbiologists, over four weeks¹. Closer to home, staff in the Marine Institute were creative in their approach to reducing single-use plastics in the lab. In addition to substituting some single-use plastics with washable glass alternatives, they substituted 200 ml shellfish sample containers with a compostable cardboard alternative. For more details, see ‘Case Studies’ section of website.

Further guidance on approaches to reducing lab waste can be found under cross-cutting themes/resources and the My Green Lab website. https://www.mygreenlab.org/waste.html.

References

1. 1. Alves et al. (2020), A case report: insights into reducing plastic waste in a microbiology laboratoryAccess Microbiology. DOI 10.1099/acmi.0.000173.

No lab greening programme would be complete without efforts aimed at reducing the impact that chemicals have on individuals using them, as well as on the environment Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring” is credited by many to have triggered the environmental movement, leading to improved controls of hazardous chemicals worldwide, such as the passing of the US Pollution Prevention Act in 1990. After Paul Anastas coined the term ‘Green Chemistry’ in 1991, tighter regulation of the cross-border movement of chemicals was instigated.

The 12 Principles of Green Chemistry were co-authored by Anastas and John Warner in 1998 and are publicised widely by the American Chemical Society. Extensive resources for each principle are freely available via the ACAS website.

The 12 Principles of Green Chemistry

1. 1. Prevention
2. 2. Atom Economy
3. 3. Less hazardous chemical synthesis
4. 4. Designing safer chemicals
5. 5. Safer solvents and auxiliaries
6. 6. Design for energy efficiency
7. 7. Use of renewable feedstocks
8. 8. Reduce derivatives
9. 9. Catalysis
10. 10. Design for degradation
11. 11. Real-time analysis for pollution prevention
12. 12. Inherently safer chemistry for accident prevention

The impact of these principles seems to have been recognised by many chemistry sub-disciplines, as evidenced by recent green chemistry-themed publications^1-10.

Analytical chemists may find the publication by Galuzka et al (2013), entitled “The 12 principles of green analytical chemistry and the SIGNIFICANCE mnemonic of green analytical practices” particularly useful¹¹.

1. 1. Select direct analytical technique
2. 2. Integrate analytical processes and operations
3. 3. Generate as little waste as possible and treat it properly
4. 4. Never waste energy
5. 5. Implement Automation and miniaturization of methods
6. 6. Favour reagents obtained from renewable source
7. 7. Increase safety for operator
8. 8. Carry out in-situ measures
9. 9. Avoid derivatization
10. 10. Note that the sample number and size should be minimal
11. 11. Choose multi-analyte or multi-parameter method
12. 12. Eliminate or replace toxic reagents.

For further resources relating to Green Chemistry, please visit the ‘Resources’ and ‘‘Certification Programmes’ pages.

References

1. 1. Anastas PT, The Origins of Green Chemistry. Downloaded from www.worldscientific.com.
2. 2. Anastas PT amd Zimmerman JB (2018) The United Nations sustainability goals: How cansustainable chemistry contribute? Current Opin. Green and Sust. Chem. 13:150.
3. 3. Anastas PT amd Zimmerman JB (2019) The periodic table of the elements of green and sustainable chemistry. Green Chem. 21: 6545.
4. 4. Zimmerman et al (2020) Designing for a green chemistry future. Science 367: 397
5. 5. Chen et al (2020) Implementation of green chemistry principles in circular economysystem towards sustainable development goals: Challenges and perspectives. Sci. Total Env. 716: 136998.
6. 6. Jahangirian et al (2017) A review of drug delivery systems based on nanotechnology and green chemistry: green nanomedicine. Int. J. Nanomed. 12:2957.
7. 7. Hernández et al (2014) The battle for the “green” polymer. Different approaches for biopolymer synthesis: bioadvantaged vs. bioreplacement. Org. Biomol. Chem 12: 2834.
8. 8. Jamarani et al (2018) How Green is Your Plasticizer? Polymers 10: 834.
9. 9. Ardila-Fierro KJ and Hernandez JG (2021) Sustainability Assessment of Mechanochemistry by Using the Twelve Principles of Green Chemistry. ChemSusChem 14: 2145.
10. 10. Papgeorgiou GZ (2018) Thinking Green: Sustainable Polymers from Renewable Resources. Polymers 10: 952.
11. 11. Galuzka et al (2013) The 12 principles of green analytical chemistry and the SIGNIFICANCE mnemonic of green analytical practices. Trends Anal. Chem. 50: 78.