Digital Network-Meeting “Sustainable Labs”
On April 25, the Competence Center for Sustainable Development (CCSD) together with the Vice-Rector for Sustainable Development, Prof. Dr. Samuel Wagner, organized a digital Network-Meeting dealing with the topic Sustainable Labs.
The aim of the workshop was to connect laboratory managers and professionals active in the laboratory field who are interested in the topic of Sustainable Labs and/or have already taken initial steps in this area. The workshop aimed to facilitate an exchange of sustainable best practices, challenges, and innovative ideas in laboratory operations.
As an icebreaker, participants brainstormed on a Miro board in response to the question: “What would the ideal sustainable laboratory look like?” The following key aspects were identified: Energy efficiency: reducing the electricity consumption of large-scale equipment; Waste reduction: minimizing single-use materials, promoting reusable alternatives, and enhancing recycling practices; Procurement: prioritizing locally produced and sustainable materials as well as suppliers with environmental certifications; Shared resources: establishing communal laboratories and equipment pools to reduce resource consumption and costs; Education and awareness: offering regular training sessions and workshops on sustainable laboratory practices; Financial aspects: allocating budgets for sustainability measures and conducting cost-benefit analyses.
Subsequently, three short presentations provided an introduction to different approaches to sustainable laboratory practices:
Dr. Sabrina Krakau, Quantitative Biology Center (Dry Lab): Reducing the carbon footprint of bioinformatic analyses. Nf-co2footprint: a Nextflow plugin to estimate the CO₂e footprint of pipeline runs.
Dr. Jochen Neumaier, Institute of Organic Chemistry: Sustainability in Organic Chemistry – examples from flow chemistry and laboratory courses (teacher training).
Robin Köhler, M.Sc. student in Biochemistry: Energy and plastic waste.
In small group discussions, participants addressed various guiding questions on the topic of Sustainable Labs. Each group could choose one or several of the following questions for discussion:
Best practice examples: What has been implemented and proven successful?
What did not work (and was discontinued)? Why?
What are the main challenges for creating sustainable laboratories?
How can we move towards the ideal sustainable laboratory?
Each group documented their results on a Miro-Board: https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVI-dx72o=/?share_link_id=229958246546
After a general discussion with all participants we recorded these central and essential bullet points:
Of crucial importance are the different levels that influence and must be considered in laboratory work: the governance level of the University of Tübingen, the regulatory and legal level, and the individual level.
Challenge: The recognition and appreciation of sustainable actions in laboratory practice, as efficiency does not necessarily equate to sustainability.
The need for a central hub to establish information, guidelines, practical examples, and tools for measuring sustainability in laboratories.
The wish to establish a digital exchange platform for sharing and reusing laboratory resources.
The creation of a joint exchange network to enable coordinated purchasing.
The utilization of existing communication channels, such as mailing lists of Core Facilities, to enhance networking and information exchange.
The importance of providing low-threshold access to sustainability topics for all staff members without requiring additional meetings.
The introduction of a joint virtual seminar series on sustainable laboratory practices to facilitate cross-site knowledge sharing.
The emphasis that sustainability must become a routine element of everyday laboratory work.
The participants agreed to establish a Taskforce “Sustainable Labs”, which will address and make accessible topics related to sustainable laboratory practices.
Interested individuals are warmly invited to contact the Competence Center for Sustainable Development at nachhaltigspam prevention@uni-tuebingen.de
We would like to thank all participants for their time and valuable insights into their everyday challenges and ideas on the topic of sustainable labs!