Four things campus researchers can do to reduce their environmental impact

1. Implement green lab best practices

Individuals can help implement best practices in their lab. Learn about ways to improve lab efficiency and reduce your lab's environmental footprint below and consider becoming an Eco Leader for your lab.

• Freezers
• Energy
• Incentives for Efficient Equipment 
• Waste
• Solvent re-use
• Posters with ideas  

CU Boulder is piloting theMy Green Lab Certification, which labs will be able to use in grant applications. Contact Green Labs if your lab would like to participate in this pilot program.

2. Grow and improve equipment sharing

Labs and departments can encourage the use of shared equipment and partner with one another to help establish additional shared resources.  Existing campus resources available for shared use can be found on the Shared Instrumentation Network.

• Sharing equipment saves money and avoids duplicate purchases. A four-year pilot of the BioCore model saved $3 millionacross three departments on campus.
• Additionally, sharing equipment reduces energy use and over purchasing, and saves time. Check out theBiochemistry Shared Cell Culture Case Studyfor more on the benefits of shared equipment.

Learn more on theShared Equipment page.

3. Optimize use of lab space

Ensuring that lab spaces are used in an optimized and efficient manner is one of the most important considerations scientists can take to reduce energy use.

• Lab spaces use a lot of energy because of their ventilation needs, and can cost up to $1 million per 1,000 square feet to build.
• Cleaning and decluttering labs improves working conditions and frees up space. Read about CU Anschutz School of Medicine's lab transformation in 2021. 
• International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) has createda toolkit, inspired by CU Anschutz, to help labs conduct cleanouts.
• The 2024 CU Boulder Climate Action Planidentifies the importance of lab optimization. CU Boulder's College of Engineering and Applied Science, the Dean’s Office and the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering have received Green Labs awards for their actions in this area.  

4. Incorporate environmental sustainability considerations into grant proposals

Scientists can highlight green lab best practices in their grant proposals now before funders start requesting it.

• Sections to consider include NSF broader impacts, biosketches, mentoring plans, and sections where the facilities, equipment and resources are described for the proposed research.  
• Example actions to include can be found on the I2SL Bringing Efficiency to Research Grants webpage.

Globally, funding bodies are moving towards expecting resource efficiency and sustainability in the way proposed research is conducted:

• In the US, the HHS Climate Action Plan includes a priority to green grants.
• In Europe, some funding sources have implemented policy to require environmental sustainability (Wellcome Trust, Cancer Research UK, and DFG in Germany).
• And at the May 2024 Global Research Council (GRC) annual meeting, leaders of funding bodies around the world adopted a Statement of Principles of Sustainable Research.  

Researchers interested in showing support for changes by funding bodies can sign the Million Advocates for Sustainable Science (MASS) letter (an effort by I2SL and My Green Lab).