How to run a sustainable chemistry lab
A lot of research focuses on sustainability and climate change – but how much thought is put into making research itself more sustainable?
‘Per square meter, a lab uses three to five times more energy than office space,’ says Brian McCarthy, a researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden and part of Towards Green Research, a sustainable lab network that shares advice on greener lab practise. ‘It felt a bit hypocritical that we were consuming all these resources but not putting in the extra effort to be more sustainable ourselves.’
We’re used to turning off the taps whilst brushing our teeth and taking reusable water bottles everywhere, but it’s also important to extend these sustainable habits into the lab.
Don’t forget about your fume hood
‘Start closing your fume cupboard sashes because ventilation systems use the most energy typically in the lab,’ says Martin Farley who manages University College London’s Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF), a certification that labs can sign up for to guide them to improve their sustainability. Research shows that a fume hood with the sash left open consumes the same energy as around four households, so ‘we basically have a little hamlet,’ McCarthy says, after counting around 25 fume hoods in the research lab where he works. Fume hoods need more energy if the sash is higher, so even if you’re only stepping away for a few minutes remember to lower it, or turn off the hood when safe to do so.