The Green Labs Initiative:
Walking the Walk of Sustainability
By Kirsten Mickelwait
Worldwide, science laboratories are being used to make breakthrough discoveries to benefit humankind. Unfortunately, most of them are also contributing to climate change in the process. LabConscious—an open resource and blog for the life sciences community—reports that science laboratories require, on average, three to six times the amount of fossil fuel energy used by normal office buildings. According to Polycarbin, a lab recycling service, the global scientific community generates more than 200 megatons of CO₂ emissions and 12 billion pounds of plastic waste each year.
At UC Berkeley, discussions about creative solutions to this problem began back in 2012, when the Chancellor’s Advisory Committee on Sustainability (CACS) launched the Green Labs (GL) program to promote environmental management and sustainable operations in laboratories across campus. The labs were first “green certified” at Berkeley in 2015.
Five years later, CACS produced its first Green Labs Action Plan to define short- and long-term goals to expand sustainable practices, including energy-saving technology, water reduction, procurement strategies, and waste elimination.
The program’s current focus is on a certification process coordinated by the Environment, Health & Safety Office (EH&S) that includes a certification checklist, updates on green lab actions, product incentive promotions, and a best-practice exchange. Labs can achieve credits in the areas of Energy Efficiency, Water Efficiency, Waste Reduction, Chemicals, Purchasing, and Education, as well as identifying potential areas for improvement. Each lab is given a three-tiered ranking: Blue, Gold, and Green, with Green being the most sustainable tier.
To date, 37 labs on campus are GL-certified and of these 10 are at MCB: the Karpen Lab, Marqusee Lab, Lewis Lab, Olzmann Lab, Portnoy Lab, Raulet Lab, Ohianle Lab, Rio Lab, Welch Lab, and Vincent J. Coates Genomics Sequencing Lab. Some of their projects include investing in renewable lab equipment, conducting waste audits, and working with recycled plastics, among other measures.
Integral to this effort at MCB are two third-year Green Labs undergraduate coordinators: Vivian Li, an MCB major; and Keshwanth Puligulla, an environmental economics and policy and data science major. Together, the two are helping advance the certification process by ensuring clear communication among participating labs and encouraging wider participation in the program. Both GL coordinators report to the EH&S office and receive a stipend from the Green Initiative Fund.
“We provide information on program compliance and hold lunch-time meetings each semester,” says Li. “We exchange ideas with other researchers and vendors, and spread the word about other opportunities—like if there’s grant money for new sustainable equipment that they're eligible for.”
Much of the job is personal outreach, Puligulla says. “There are a lot of internal meetings with administration, researchers, lab managers, etc. We learn what kinds of issues they’re having and discuss how we can help with that, and how we can ease the process for them.”
Both students see their roles as a positive step toward their future career paths. “We're both very passionate about sustainability and protecting our planet for the future,” Li says. “I’m thinking about pursuing either research or some kind of consulting, and sustainability is a huge issue in both of those fields. It’s something I’ll be mindful about for my entire life.”
Puligulla agrees. “I'm really interested in the intersection between environmental issues and policy. So Green Labs is definitely a big part of the sustainability initiative that I want to be a part of in the future.”
To learn more about Green Labs, visit their website: https://sustainability.berkeley.edu/engage/green-labs-certification
Check out the Green Labs Sustainability Guide: https://sustainability.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/greenlabs.goinggreenguide.pdf
Read the Green Labs Action Plan: https://sustainability.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/uc_berkeley_green_labs_action_plan_may_2020.pdf
Back to Main Fall 2024 Newsletter Page
