We are rolling out laboratory efficiency schemes to help you make your lab practices more sustainable and reduce your carbon footprint. These programmes will provide you the practical steps to improve sustainability within your lab.
Lab sustainability certification schemes
The Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) is an environmental accreditation scheme designed to improve sustainability within higher education teaching and research.
The framework enables individual lab managers (academic staff, technical staff, teaching lab. managers) from all departments to quantify their environmental and financial impact. The LEAF programme comprises the following:
- Participating labs are given a list of environmental actions on an online platform broken down into Bronze, Silver and Gold categories to complete. Each action within the categories is clear and easy to implement.
- The categories include waste, travel, energy, water, procurement, and research quality. Each action is supported by a rationale as well as evidenced guidance to help implement it.
- Carbon calculators are included within the online toolkit enabling labs to estimate the current sustainability performance of their lab and track improvements as they implement changes.
- Labs can decide on bronze, silver or gold level award and have the opportunity in the following year to improve (if required).
How can I get involved?
Participating labs are asked to complete an online workbook that enables them to assess how individual items contribute to their carbon footprint in a thorough, wide-ranging, and organised manner.
To get involved, please download the LEAF user guide via the link above or email lab-sustainability@imperial.ac.uk to help you create an account via the online portal and provide a step-by-step guide on how to register your lab.
Lab Certification Sustainability Showcase
Catch up on our Lab Certification Sustainability Showcase, where certified Bronze and Gold Imperial lab users share the steps they took to achieve a lab certification through LEAF and My Green Labs. In this session, you will learn the application process with the online platforms, going from Bronze to Silver, and the small changes that you can make in your labs to make a big difference.
Further information
Further resources
- Case studies on making laboratories more sustainable
- A Guide to Reduce Single-Use Plastics for Laboratories
- The UN’s definitions of Chemicals and Waste
- Sustainable Labs articles by Chemistry World
- Progressive plastics: explained
- Resources for sustainable laboratory practice
- Green Chemistry: Principles and Practice
- Twelve reasons for labs to go greener
- Embedding environmental sustainability into pharma’s DNA
Sustainable Lab Kit Fund
The Sustainability Hub has launched our Lab Kit Fund to help drive the shift to sustainable laboratory equipment. More sustainable and efficient equipment tends to come with a higher initial price tag; this fund hopes to bridge that financial gap and enable groups to make the more environmental choice. Applications are open to any groups looking purchase, replace or, repair equipment.
Apply for our Sustainable Lab Kit Fund 2024-25
If you have any queries, please email sustainable@imperial.ac.uk with the subject 'Lab Kit Fund'.
Environmental Impacts of ULT Storage
Catch up on our Environmental Impacts of Biobanking seminar, where our guest speaker Matthew Graham shares Carbon Footprinting Assessments that were carried out on ULT Freezers and Liquid Nitrogen Storage as part of a one year, UK-based, MRC-funded multidisciplinary research project led by DR. Gabrielle Samuel (KCL) and Martin Farley (UKRI).