Good practices to reduce the ecological footprint in labs

Together with researchers, we look for ways to reduce disposable plastics, reduce volumes and use less reagents and energy during lab work. Laboratories use a lot of water and energy, much more than other buildings. Below are tips that can be implemented in the laboratory to reduce environmental impact. At the site My Green Lab can you find a lot of interesting things about water, energy, waste and green chemistry!

Generic analyses with reduced environmental impact

  • Use less hazardous chemicals. Find a safer and more environmentally friendly alternative to a hazardous substance using the Green Alternatives Wizard.

  • PCR analysis

  • Heating differently: choose the most sustainable heat source. Bunsen burners use gas to open fire. It is modular and works faster, but is unsafe and you are working with a fossil fuel. An oil bath is also no longer preferable. It allows better temperature control, but can cause spills. So opt for safer and more sustainable electric heat sources, such as electric Bunsen burners, heating blocks, ovens or dryers. The UGent provides green electricity. 

  • Scale reduction: carry out the test on a smaller scale. This way, fewer lab products and energy are needed and you produce less waste. With snap cap vials, filter cartridges, ... this is now quite possible. 

Reduce energy consumption

  • Use of fumehoods
  • Make sure the autoclave is full when you run it. It uses a lot of heat, water and pressure, and thus a lot of energy.

Sustainable purchase and material management and reducing waste

Stock management

  • Ensure proper inventory management and use the M-CHEM tool for hazardous materials inventory management. Costs are saved when items are not unnecessarily duplicated. When you need minute quantities (much less than the smallest package), check with a fellow oodner research group first.
  • Unused lab products are regularly presented as waste. Avoid this by always weighing up thoroughly whether a purchase of a product is necessary or, in case of a wrong purchase, try to pass the product on to another research group that can use it. The cost of disposing and processing unused lab products is passed on to the research group. 

Packaging waste

  • Isomo chips when supplied by ChemLab: UGent concluded a framework contract with ChemLab for the purchase of chemicals. It was agreed that isomo chips, needed to secure hazardous substances during transport, can be collected in a large bag (or box). When this is full, this can be reported to ChemLab's internal sales department, which will prepare a return slip for this purpose and inform you when the bag will be collected.

  • Isomo blocks: White and grey isomo blocks should be disposed of in bags (to be requested from the cleaning staff), although white and grey should be separated and stripped of stickers. Break them into pieces beforehand so you can fill the bags properly. When a bag is full, contact Campus and Building.

  • Toners: All types of toners, toner pots, waste boxes containing toner dust and cartridges are now collected by one partner, i.e. Recyca. The material collected by Recyca is recycled. Request collection boxes or a collection from ophaling@recyca.be. This project is part of the Circular Planet initiative in which the various printer suppliers unite to collect all toner waste. 

  • Cooling elements: Block-shaped cooling elements can be offered to the thrift shop on a limited basis. (Contact milieu@ugent.be for this.) Bags containing cooling fluid can possibly be used for medical applications. If recycling is not possible, the non-hazardous coolant can be poured down the sink and the empty bags can be collected with the 'plastics'.
  • Medical waste recipients: Medical waste recipients now consist of recycled material.
  • Work with suppliers who want to reduce their packaging, e.g. smaller boxes, no unnecessary use of isomo chips....

Disposable material 

  • Recycling of Nitrile disposable gloves: Nitrile disposable gloves that until recently you threw in the residual waste can now be collected separately and recycled through the RightCycle program! Slight chemical contamination is allowed, but biological contamination is not. This can be remedied in certain cases by autoclaving the gloves first.
  • Use glass instead of plastic whenever possible. Also choose products with a longer lifespan to reduce waste.

Sharing of equipment and lab material

  • A Core Facility often brings together highly specialised and necessary scientific expertise, services and research infrastructure, allowing it to be shared by all researchers within the Core Facility and/or other users inside and outside UGent.
    In addition to discarded office furniture, and textbooks and materials, UGent Deelt now also has a module to easily give away, sell and buy devices and lab equipment.

Check-out when researchers leave UGent

  • Organise a good check-out: organise stock that has to be kept, clear out fridges and freezers, .... Here is a checklist that can be used for this purpose.

Student practica with less environmental impact

Group work is often needed as a cost-saving measure for large groups (less space and staff needed). This can involve working with the 'captain system': 1 trial is done by 4 students, with a different student being the main supervisor each time.

Sustainable use of ICT and AI

The development and use of AI requires enormous computing power, with a very large environmental and climate impact. This impact is compounded many times over by highly accessible consumer products. "Demand for electricity from search engines such as Google could increase tenfold if AI is fully implemented in them," the IEA report states. In addition, the United Nations has predicted that water needs will exceed supply by about 40 percent by 2030. 

  • Determine in advance which tasks require complex models and where simpler models will suffice. Merely increasing speed and efficiency does not justify the use of AI. For this, UGent provides other tools with less environmental and climate impact. Adapt your habits, tasks and activities accordingly.
  • As a teacher, teach your students a critical attitude towards AI and its environmental and climate impact, and encourage them to determine in advance for which teaching assignments AI is justified or not.

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