The Sustainable Laboratory - How Lab Managers
and Technicians Can Make an Environmental
Difference
Peter James and Lisa Hopkinson
September 2009
Professor Peter James is Co-Director and Lisa Hopkinson is a Researcher for the Higher
Education Environmental Performance Improvement (HEEPI) project. This is based at the
University of Bradford, and mainly funded from the HEFCE Leadership, Governance and
Management (LGM) initiative. It aims to improve the environmental performance of
universities and colleges through identification and dissemination of best practice, events
and network building activities, and development of sector capacity. See www.heepi.org.uk
for more details, and contact information.
The Sustainable Laboratory - How Lab Managers and Technicians can Make an Environmental Difference
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ 2
1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 3
2. Presentations ............................................................................................................................... 3
2.1 The Sustainable Laboratory – Professor Peter James .............................................. 3
2.2 Improving Laboratory Environmental Performance in the University of
California – Allen Doyle ............................................................................................................. 5
2.3 Energy and Environmental Management at the Health Protection Agency’s
Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response - Steve Owens ........................... 7
2.4 Greening Laboratory IT - Lisa Hopkinson ..................................................................... 8
2.5 Reducing Laboratory Environmental Impacts at the University of Edinburgh –
David Somervell........................................................................................................................... 9
3. Discussion .................................................................................................................................. 10
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to thank Allen Doyle, Steve Owens and David Somervell and all the
participants from the two HEEPI Sustainable Laboratory events in April/May 2009 for their
contributions towards this paper. Thanks also to the Royal Society of Chemistry and
University of Edinburgh for hosting the events.
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The Sustainable Laboratory - How Lab Managers and Technicians can Make an Environmental Difference
1. Introduction
This paper summarises the presentations and dialogue at, and subsequent discussion
about, two events on making laboratory operation more sustainable.1 They were held at
the Royal Society of Chemistry, London on 27th April 2009, and the University of
Edinburgh on 1st May 2009.
The events were jointly organised by Ecoversity, HEaTED and S-Lab.
 Ecoversity is a programme developed at the University of Bradford which embeds
the principles and practice of sustainable development across the entire institution
by getting people involved, taking the lead on issues, and encouraging and making
it easier for people to adopt sustainable behaviours and lifestyles.
 HEaTED (Higher Education and Technicians Education and Development) is a
centrally funded not-for-profit project which is supporting the professional
development of specialist staff in universities, including laboratory managers and
technicians.2
 S-Lab (Safe, Successful and Sustainable Laboratories) is a programme of HEEPI
(Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement), a not-for-profit
project which supports UK universities and colleges in becoming more sustainable
through benchmarking, sharing best practice, and other actions.3
The events brought together academics, lab managers and technicians, representatives of
national support bodies and others from a variety of disciplines, including biology,
chemistry, engineering, and pharmacy. They also featured Allen Doyle who has developed
the award-winning LabRATS (Research and Technical Staff) initiative within the University
of California.
2. Presentations
The London event was introduced by Sean McWhinnie, of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
He stressed the Society’s commitment to taking environmental issues seriously, as
evidenced by its support for the Green Chemistry Network, and regular articles in its
publications.
2.1 The Sustainable Laboratory – Professor Peter James
Peter James is Professor of Environmental Management at the University of Bradford, and
Co-Director of the HEEPI (Higher Education Environmental Performance Improvement)
project. HEEPI has funding council support for a Sustainable Laboratories initiative, which
has three strands – laboratory design (working in partnership with the US Labs 21
initiative); laboratory operation; and laboratory users, especially students. The initiative is
known as ‘S-Lab’ – based on its objectives of helping laboratories to be safe, successful
and sustainable. It emphasises the synergies between these objectives rather than seeing
1
The contents of this paper are the responsibility of the authors, but they have benefited greatly from the
advice and review of Allen Doyle.
2 See http://www.istonline.org.uk/HEATED/heated.htm for more details.
3 See www.goodcampus.org for details.
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The Sustainable Laboratory - How Lab Managers and Technicians can Make an Environmental Difference
them in competition, and tries to overcome the frequent problem of sustainability being
compartmentalised from broader strategic thinking.
Laboratories have the ‘normal’ environmental aspects of any building, such as the impacts
arising from construction materials, generation of construction and end-of-life-waste,
transport movements of materials and users, and environmental control (heating and
cooling) for occupant comfort. They also have more distinctive impacts, including:
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Use of many non-renewable materials;
Use of highly contagious and/or hazardous materials, leading to occupational health
and safety issues, and community concern about possible health impacts relating to
exhaust gases;
Creation of contaminated wastes;
Very high water consumption, and creation of potentially hazardous effluents; and
Very high energy consumption (often five times or more greater per square metre
than offices).
Some of these impacts are ‘hard wired’ in the design stage, but many can be ameliorated
through action by laboratory managers, technicians and users.4 Some key points were:
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Actions to reduce these impacts can often by synergistic with other laboratory
objectives, such as health and safety and better working conditions.
Growing pressures include utility costs, regulations, government targets and
stakeholder demands.
Specific lab drivers include new fume cupboard standards based on risk
assessments, REACH legislation.
Labs are very energy intensive – ventilation is a large part of this and can account
for 30-40% of total energy consumption where there are many fume cupboards.
Also health/safety, more equipment and extended occupancy means newer labs
are often more energy intensive.
Actions to reduce energy through design include design integration, right sizing and
modular design.
Actions to reduce energy/water in operation include auditing/metering, budgetary
responsibility, low power/flow devices and powering down equipment and
awareness campaigns.
Actions to reduce waste include waste auditing, effective management and
awareness campaigns.
Universities are under growing pressure to do more in all these areas. In operations, new
regulations such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment, stakeholder pressures - e.g.
HEFCE is currently consulting on a sectoral target for carbon reduction – and other factors
are requiring significant improvement. Comparison is also becoming more common, e.g.
through People and Planet’s Green League Table or Display Energy Certificates on
buildings. On curriculum, pressures are more diffuse but there is increasing employer
interest in graduates who have a good grounding in the topic.
4
A parallel publication Designing Laboratories for Energy Efficiency and Good Environmental Performance
discusses design issues. This is also available at www.heepi.org.uk
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The Sustainable Laboratory - How Lab Managers and Technicians can Make an Environmental Difference
2.2 Improving Laboratory Environmental Performance in the University
of California – Allen Doyle
Allen is Sustainability Manager at the University of California, Davis (UCD) and has 25
years experience as a scientist in chemistry, oceanography and soil ecology. He cofounded the Laboratory Research And Technical Staff (LabRATS) initiative when running
a laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), and has recently
extended it to UCD. The UCSB scheme continues and is run on a part time basis by two
researchers and an administrator, and has up to 6 undergraduate interns. It also draws on
an existing network of 60-80 ‘change agents’ across many campus operations.
LabRATS began at UCSB with a small foundation grant, and volunteer staffing. After a
pilot year, modest funding for interns, campaigns and interactive websites was received
from The Green Initiative Fund (GIF), which raises around £150,000 every year from a
voluntary levy on student fees. The grants are awarded by a committee of students, staff
and faculty, and there are TGIF programs on several campuses.
A central tool of LabRATS at UCSB is a six step laboratory audit template. 5 This can be
used directly by lab managers, but in most cases it has been utilised by interns, working in
collaboration with research staff. The process identified considerable opportunities for
energy and water savings - hundreds of thousands of litres per year in the latter case. It
also created unexpected benefits, e.g. the assessment team sometimes found researchers
wanting an analytical technique or piece of equipment that was routine or surplus in
another lab and could connect them.
A larger LabRATS programme has not been launched at UC Davis yet, and the intern
model is too time-intensive to cover its 2,000+ labs. The next challenge is producing a
simpler self-auditing tool, and motivating research groups to use it themselves. The
programme will also include extensive web tools and a network of Conservation
Coordinators that will overlap with the existing network of Safety Coordinators. The aim is
that both networks will enhance both safety and conservation. Over several months the
laboratories in each building will go through a self-assessment in synchronisation and
arena-by-arena. This will utilise the momentum of communal participation and problem
solving.
In addition to individual assessments, campus-wide campaigns are important. As fume
cupboards account for a large proportion of energy use in labs this has been a major
focus. In the short term, the best way to reduce consumption is by closing sashes when
not in use. Given that industry studies show scientists only stand in front of a fume
cupboard 10% of the day, the LabRATS benchmark is that, as an average, the fume
cupboard opening height should be only 10% of the maximum during the workday.
However, a survey found that almost 50% of UCD fume cupboards were fully open at
midnight. LabRATS at UCSB developed face-to-face training, educational materials and
stickers which are placed at the side of sashes to remind people to close them when work
is finished. A few test cupboards have also been fitted with automatic closing devices
(which discussion suggested would cost £400-500 in the UK, if designed properly).
5
LabRATS outputs can be downloaded from http://sustainability.ucsb.edu/LARS/programs/
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The Sustainable Laboratory - How Lab Managers and Technicians can Make an Environmental Difference
Other LabRATS activities have included:
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Encouraging appropriate use of equipment, e.g. not using incubators as
refrigerators, as they have 4-5 times greater energy consumption; not using giant
autoclaves to process a single rack of test tubes.
Encouraging appropriate equipment distribution, e.g. placing heat-generating
appliances such as freezers away from cooled spaces in areas such as corridors;
storing solvents in cupboards to avoid the need for special ventilation (when safe to
do so).
Minimising use of energy-intensive distilled water by encouraging scientists to think
about their purity requirements, and whether these can be met by deionization or
reverse osmosis.
Minimising water use by substituting vacuum pumps for aspirators; using timers for
rinsing; avoiding single pass cooling; and checking whether autoclaves and other
water-intensive equipment are leaking and then reporting it to repair staff.
Minimising chemical use (and thereby reducing hazardous waste), e.g. by reducing
the size of vials containing scintillation fluid; introducing a thermometer exchange
scheme to replace mercury thermometers (which cost £40 or more to deal with if
they break) with spirit ones, which can be acceptably accurate for similar
applications.
Encouraging recycling and reuse e.g. by reusing lab furniture when refurbishing;
washing disposable plastic test tubes and cascading them to labs which don’t need
high purity or sterility; setting up a free chemical website so that surplus chemicals
can be advertised (with a picture of the container, and a description of condition,
which assists take-up) and used by others; advertising surplus equipment on eBay
(and purchasing second hand equipment from it); and extending the life of
electronic and scientific equipment by advertising its availability within the
university.
Preparing a sustainable procurement guide for laboratory equipment and materials.
Reducing lighting demand by reducing the number of fitments within luminaires and
labelling switches (NB LabRATS promotes new lighting standards of 200-300
Lumens/m2 as adequate for many laboratory settings rather than the standard
1000).
Encouraging take up of utility rebates when older freezers are replaced with more
efficient ones.
Allen also described a new method of storing DNA samples which has been successfully
trialled in California universities. Rather than storage in the traditional ultra-cold freezers (80 ºC) this uses a synthetic sugar coating which allows storage at room temperature,
reduces the risks associated with from power cuts, and makes shipment very inexpensive
and low risk.
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The Sustainable Laboratory - How Lab Managers and Technicians can Make an Environmental Difference
2.3 Energy and Environmental Management at the Health Protection
Agency’s Centre for Emergency Preparedness and Response - Steve
Owens
Steve is Environmental Manager at the Health Protection Agency (HPA). This is one of the
largest laboratory operators in the UK, with four central facilities plus a network of local
and regional sites. The planned redevelopment of its Porton Down facility is also likely to
be one of the largest new laboratory developments in Europe. Some key points from
Steve’s presentation were:
•
•
•
•
•
•
6
7
In addition to the general environmental drivers which apply to all organisations,
such as strengthening regulation, HPA is subject to the Government’s Sustainability
of the Government Estate (SOGE) targets,6 which are very demanding, considering
the ageing infrastructure of some of the estate.
Clear management responsibility is central to effective environmental improvement
– this is a central feature of the HPA’s Environment and Sustainability delivery plan.
Managers must also take on board the legal responsibilities that are placed on them
under environmental law, offer support to their staff that are involved in the delivery
programme and recognise the environmental interfaces there are within their areas
of responsibility.
Some important energy-related issues within HPA encompass the total cost of
ownership of new equipment; continuous monitoring of energy consumption; submetering; timer controls for heating/cooling; high frequency fluorescent lighting;
switches for individual lighting circuits; lighting sensors (especially toilets and
corridors); and checking equipment standby.
Waste issues are of particular importance. Key issues here are ensuring that
packaging, where possible, isn’t taken into Category 2 and Category 3 labs (as it
would then be treated as potentially hazardous waste).Providing adequate space in
laboratories for waste segregation wold help educate staff into the waste hierarchy
and the need to manage their waste. Health Care Technical Memorandum 07-01
on safe management of health care waste provides best practice on colour coded
waste segregation.7 Waste audits are also essential for duty of care and
compliance.
Training in sustainability should be made a compulsory module in the students’
curriculum, as is health and safety, prior to them being allowed to work or study in
the laboratory.
A laboratory carbon footprinting tool has been developed to help guide laboratory
managers to understand the carbon impact that their laboratory operations have,
and thus allow them to put measures in place to reduce this impact.
See http://www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable/government/gov/estates/ for more information
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_063274
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2.4 Greening Laboratory IT - Lisa Hopkinson
Lisa is Researcher on HEEPI’s SusteIT project, which recently reviewed green IT in further
and higher education, and produced a number of case studies, technical reports and
tools.8 Some key points from Lisa’s presentation were:
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8
Laboratories are becoming more ICT-intensive – research computing is becoming
more powerful, more research is being done ‘in silico’ (i.e. computer modelling), and
the ICT infrastructure is growing (e.g. high bandwidth links between laboratories).
Lab research is increasingly IT-intensive – large numbers of high spec PCs, many
on 24/7
IT has environmental impacts through equipment (manufacture, use, disposal), and
use. IT also has environmental benefits gained through videoconferencing
(reducing travel, facilitating learning) and location independent working.
Energy impacts for PCs/monitors are largely in the use phase of lifecycle, but
waste/pollution impacts are largely in the manufacturing phase.
IT in higher education has significant impacts, including a large carbon footprint. In
individual institutions PCs are responsible for nearly half of total energy in use.
(Servers, high performance computing and printers are also significant).
Greening of IT is being driven by increasing electricity costs, regulations, corporate
social responsibility and operational factors (e.g. lack of space).
Whole life costing of IT devices is essential due to potentially high lifetime energy
costs.
Action to reduce impacts of desktops includes specifying low power PCs (making
use of the new Energy Star 5 scheme), powerdown in use, extending use of old
equipment and disposing responsibly.
A SusteIT case study of a Sheffield University research group who installed low
energy servers found that they saved £600/y in energy, and also reduced their
space needs.
Action to reduce impacts of printing includes low energy printers/copiers,
powerdown of devices, and reducing paper usage (paper has very high levels of
embodied energy).
Action to reduce impacts of server rooms include a) purchasing more energyefficient devices, including low powered conventional servers, blade servers, and
multi-core devices, b) changing programming configurations and approaches,
through means such as server powerdown, server consolidation and virtualisation,
and more efficient applications software and storage, and c) reducing cooling loads
and power supply losses by widening humidity and temperature bands (in line with
recent ASHRAE advice), better controls and more responsive cooling systems,
reduced mixing of hot and cold air, ‘free cooling’ (using ambient air rather than
chillers), using alternative cooling such as carbon dioxide or chilled water, and
installing high conversion efficiency transformers and ‘uninterruptible power supply’
(UPS) units.
In the longer term ‘zero carbon data centres’, combining high energy efficiency and
renewable sources of energy supply were feasible.
See www.susteit.org.uk for more information
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The Sustainable Laboratory - How Lab Managers and Technicians can Make an Environmental Difference
2.5 Reducing Laboratory Environmental Impacts at the University of
Edinburgh – David Somervell
David Somervell, Sustainability Advisor at the University of Edinburgh, presented a
comprehensive overview of how the University is reducing the impacts of laboratory
operation, though its integrated approach to carbon and environmental management.
He stressed the importance of action on climate change and why it is cheaper to invest
now than delay action. He outlined what is needed at university level for effective delivery:
interested and enthusiastic people; senior management support; resources; an integrated
institutional approach and utilities infrastructure upgrade. An integrated institutional
approach involves: energy/carbon management policy(ies); commitment to invest a
minimum % of utility spend on energy efficiency; defining clear management
responsibilities; linking into peer support networks such as the Environmental Association
for Universities and Colleges (EAUC); a holistic institutional approach; and whole life
costing. The latter helped to make the case for installing three Combined Heat and Power
(CHP) energy centres at the university, which now generate £1 million savings per year.
David then outlined 10 steps the university has found helpful to support laboratory work
including:
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Replacing water aspirator pumps with central vacuum pumps.
Applying whole life costing to procurement e.g. comparison of reverse osmosis
instead of distilled water (see http://tiny.cc/edinb).
Controlling the building energy management systems.
Raising awareness of the energy costs and consumption amongst all users via a
website, newsletters, posters/stickers, coasters, and room thermometers.
www.eso.ed.ac.uk/energy
Encouraging recycling – the university achieved a 56% recycling rate in 2008
Procuring commingled service for waste rather than segregate on site – the three
streams are paper/cardboards, mixed recycling, and landfill (latter includes gloves,
lab type waste and food).
Cascading equipment and chemicals for reuse wherever possible, e.g. through an
equipment
exchange
scheme
for
WEEE
(see
www.pps.ed.ac.uk/for/equipmentexchange).
Auditing the WEEE disposal service for legal compliance.
Providing training and guidance – Edinburgh has web based flow charts illustrating
segregation practice for lab waste (see www.eso.ed.ac.uk/waste). All lab waste
must be segregated and be labelled for disposal tracking. Barcode labels MUST be
used and recorded on sacks of clinical waste.
Providing guidance on legal responsibilities to avoid legal action due to improper lab
waste management practices and disposal.
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The Sustainable Laboratory - How Lab Managers and Technicians can Make an Environmental Difference
3. Discussion
A number of points emerged in the discussion sessions at the events, including:
Lack of financial incentives – There are two problems, both related to budgetary systems.
One is the fact that most laboratories – and almost no individual research groups – are
responsible for utility costs. Hence, many purchases of lab equipment and supplies only
focus on acquisition costs as the purchasers will not be liable for ongoing utility costs. An
extreme example of this is researchers purchasing low purity solvents and then purifying
with in-house stills – far more costly overall than buying the right quality initially, but
cheaper for them. Thorough whole life costing of purchases can at least raise awareness
of the issues and stimulate some people to take voluntary action. Devolved budgeting can
also help, but it is a blunt instrument which can sometimes be more trouble than it is worth.
An alternative mechanism is a sharing of any utility savings between Estates and the
laboratory but this does require accurate monitoring of use (see below). The second
problem is instances when people want to purchase more energy efficient alternatives, but
cannot justify an additional capital costs, even though this will be paid back within a short
period. One solution is a ring fenced budget to finance the incremental costs – either
internal, or as part of the Salix Finance scheme for the sector.9
Opposition from lab users – This is widespread, and occurs for many reasons, including
the natural scepticism of scientists about new propositions, concerns about safety and
effects on research (e.g. purity of materials, speed and efficiency), and a worry that
making utility costs visible may eventually result in higher costs for the department. In
some cases, these concerns can be reduced by information and discussion. Where this
isn’t the case, the opposition generally has to be respected, and action focused on specific
areas where it matters less.
Lack of knowledge - The issue of how to raise awareness for people working in labs or
students and the fact that much of the information is scattered. A representative from
HEaTED – who are organising training for thousands of technicians, suggested they work
with HEEPI, and noted that they conducted a 2009 survey on training and development.
Value of student initiatives – These can be very important, not only as a resource but also
to stimulate action amongst teaching staff and prepare students for a future world where
sustainability is likely to be important. Several examples were noted. A delegate from
Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Portugal described a waste management
programme which started because of student awareness. There is now a programme to
collect liquid waste from labs so that there is no waste to the drainage system. The waste
is identified and characterised (in the Chemistry Dept) and treatments are developed to
neutralise it.10 An analysis tool is being developed as part of the work for use in the student
curriculum. It was also suggested that research students could keep an environmental
impact diary of their research.
9
See http://www.salixfinance.co.uk/home.html for more information
See M.G.F. Sales, C. Delerue-Matos, I.B. Martins, I. Serra, M.R. Silva and S. Morais. A waste
management school approach towards sustainability. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, Vol 48,
Issue 2. August 2006. Available at: http://www.labs21.org.uk/events_presentations.htm
10
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The Sustainable Laboratory - How Lab Managers and Technicians can Make an Environmental Difference
Equipment exchange – surplus equipment can be a problem in two opposite ways.
Sometimes, the costs or physical constraints of space mean that unused but serviceable
equipment is discarded. (Another factor is that Principal Investigators have to bring in
money, and some feel that it looks better if they are funded to purchase new equipment
rather than recycling old.) In other cases, equipment may be hoarded to the point that it
impedes effective use of space and safety. The LabRATS solution of equipment exchange
is already practiced by the Medical Research Council, but is not yet widespread in
universities (although the research Councils are considering a scheme). There were
concerns about potential safety issues from exchange, e.g. compliance with electrical
safety for instance. LabRATS avoids this by clearly indicating that equipment is sold as
seen, and that buyers need to test it thoroughly.
Metering and monitoring - Only a few of the participants worked in labs which had a
detailed breakdown of energy use, and it was suggested that metering would be difficult in
a university with several thousand labs all doing different things. However, one participant
worked for a commercial company where all the labs had to have their own metering. Any
energy savings made by that lab were divided into 3 – one third to the department who
made the saving, one third to the company’s sustainability group and one third to the
company. The British Antarctic Survey (part of NERC) are also installing half hourly meters
on all their lab facilities. Six weeks after installation at one facility, 3 major water leaks
were detected which paid for all the costs. New regulations such as the Carbon Reduction
Commitment will also require more detailed metering. Even with incomplete information, it
is often possible to identify areas of high energy usage and concentrate attention on them.
Making displays of energy consumption visible can also raise user awareness.
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