Hi Reader, there are five fundamentals every laboratory should implement
These are simple and quick practices that can enable surprisingly large savings.
Moreover, they are applicable no matter which field you work in or what your position within the lab is.
You want sustainability while staying safe? Here we go:
Today's Lesson: Five Fundamentals For Every Lab
Simple and safe practices to make the first step
Number of the Day
McGain et al. investigated how many resources could be saved by simply turning off their steam sterilizers. Since their machines were idle (inactive but still turned on) 48% of the time, they wasted about 66 MWh of electricity and over 1 million liters of water per year. This means that simply turning them off could save about 26% of electricity, 13% of water use, and over $8000 annually. Many sustainability improvements don’t require advanced tactics; they simply require us to look at places we normally don’t pay attention to.
$8000
For Everyone and Everywhere
I started this series and began consulting because I saw myself that it’s possible to work sustainably while improving scientific processes.
Sustainability, when done properly, is safe and comes with many benefits beyond reduced environmental impact.
If we assess examples such as switching to the drop method where, instead of streaking bacteria on a plate, you culture them in a drop using a pipette, you save up to 80% of plastic and culture plates. That also translates to savings in time, energy and reduce wear on your hood. Finally, the bacteria seem to have higher viability due to reduced stress.
However, there are two main challenges to realizing these benefits:
A) Initial action – the first step is always the most difficult one, and everything else often just snowballs into further action.
B) Lack of belief – it really requires openness from every researcher to reassociate sustainability with an approach that focuses on effectiveness and efficiency, instead of any political connotation.
To help with both points, I want to share five practices that I believe every lab can adopt.
Miniaturization
Using a smaller item is one of the quickest, safest, and most impactful changes that can be implemented everywhere.
For example, if you are handling less than 10 milliliters of a solution, use a 15 mL tube instead of a 50 mL tube. This often saves around 50% of plastic waste.
It can also mean using a P1000 pipette and pipetting two or three times instead of using a serological pipette, which saves up to 90% of plastic waste.
In a broader sense, miniaturization can also be translated into resourcefulness. If you have a 96-well plate, try to use all the wells. Or if you have a workflow for an assay or downstream analysis, think about whether there are options to use the same pipette tip to pipette common solvents first, or to add them directly into the reaction tubes/plates instead of preparing them in a separate tube.
And since we have to unpack and prepare serological pipettes, it often doesn’t take much more time.
Although I came across a few cases, protocols were generally not specifically optimized and therefore required larger volumes.
In contrast, I have worked with scientists who found that their procedures actually worked better in smaller tubes because, for example, the resuspension of pellets worked better.
Handling Waste Properly
Every laboratory should have more than one waste bin.
If we only have a single bin, we normally have to treat everything as biohazardous waste.
The problem with biohazardous waste is that it must be autoclaved and treated separately, which often contributes 30–50% of the total environmental footprint of laboratory waste.
Therefore, simply adding one bin for paper and another for plastic can already make a difference.
And yes, this also applies to laboratories operating under higher biosafety levels.
It’s really about pragmatic thinking and precision. Many guidelines state that only contaminated materials, those that have been in direct contact with living organisms or biohazardous substances, must be discarded separately. As long as materials have not been contaminated, they can be disposed of normally.
For example, the wrapping of pipette tip boxes or serological pipettes can be recycled if they have never come into contact with your samples.
Of course, you should work cleanly and avoid spills on the lab bench, but beyond that, a little extra attention can go a long way. In the end, we know that recycling is not a perfect solution and still has its own environmental footprint. However, laboratories often produce high-quality materials that can be recycled, and recycling them is certainly preferable to sending them for biohazardous treatment and autoclaving.
Pro tip: Once you introduce this change, make sure to inform the personnel responsible for waste management.
They need to know which types of waste go into which bins. Since waste segregation systems and color coding may differ between countries, it is important to communicate clearly.
Reviewing Your Instruments
Just take a short walk through your lab space and review the use of instruments.
Identify where instruments are running 24/7 unnecessarily. That’s it.
For those who are more ambitious, you can also:
Review settings such as the temperature of your freezer or the gradients used in an HPLC method
Set up a calendar to coordinate instrument use with others
Explore whether useful upgrades or gadgets are available
Unfortunately, many sustainability experts I speak with have not yet discovered the perspective I am taking; that sustainability is essentially a new perspective on optimization.
Therefore, don’t get frustrated if you hear generic or idealistic advice - change is possible even in challenging environments.
When we become interested in sustainability, we often fear that others will disapprove or not have the time to support our endeavors.
In my experience, most people remain silent because they don’t know what to do, even though they would be happy to contribute.
The most effective way, whether you are a PhD student or a group leader, is to bring the topic up in a lab meeting.
A group leader allowing this topic to be addressed is a powerful signal that it is worth discussing.
What should you discuss once you have five minutes of attention?
Ask for examples of what others have done or perceive as challenges
Encourage the integration of these practices into written protocols as side notes
Share the resources discussed above
I am currently developing some slides for that purpose that you can use as well.
A Google Doc you can copy paste - no login, no annoying barriers.
If you experience resistance within your own lab, or want to make new connections, I have prepared a short email template that you can use to reach out to your institution’s mailing list.
This approach is surprisingly helpful for identifying like-minded individuals.
Applying The Knowledge
In my experience, these small practices can have big effects.
Using smaller items and identifying unnecessary steps in protocols can easily save 20–30% of plastic waste.
Turning machines off or enhancing settings can save over 35% of energy (switching your freezer from -80 to -70 about 25%).
Critically assess whether the startup time is really too long to justify turning instruments off, because often it is not. For instance, AstraZeneca saved about $10,000 annually simply by realizing that sample preparation often took longer than the startup time of their two fusion fluxers. Overall, they are a company that takes its sustainability pledge seriously and has saved over $317 000 in energy costs annually. FYI, the instrument you see in the picture is a fusion fluxer. It is used to prepare solid samples for elemental analysis, particularly for X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) techniques.
We often see laboratories saving three to five-digit amounts in expenses each year through practices like those we discussed.
So, just start! Once you have implemented them, I am sure you will already have identified many more opportunities for improvement.
How We Feel Today
References
McGain, F., et al., 2016. Hospital steam sterilizer usage: could we switch off to save electricity and water? Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, 21(3), 166–171. doi:10.1177/1355819615625698.
Penndorf, P., 2024. Reducing plastic waste in scientific protocols by 65% – practical steps for sustainable research. FEBS Letters, 598(11), 1331–1334. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.14909.
Penndorf, P., et al., 2023. A new approach to making scientific research more efficient – rethinking sustainability. FEBS Letters, 597(19), 2371–2374. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.14736.
Mazzali, D., et al., 2025. Sustainable and surfactant-free synthesis of negatively charged acrylamide nanogels for biomedical applications. Macromolecules, 58(3), 1206–1213. doi:10.1021/acs.macromol.4c02128.
Kilcoyne, J., et al., 2022. Reducing environmental impacts of marine biotoxin monitoring: a laboratory report. PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, 1(3), e0000001. doi:10.1371/journal.pstr.0000001.
Alves, J., et al., 2020. A case report: insights into reducing plastic waste in a microbiology laboratory. Access Microbiology, 3(3), 000173. doi:10.1099/acmi.0.000173.
Freese, T., et al., 2024. The relevance of sustainable laboratory practices. RSC Sustainability, 2, 1300–1336. doi:10.1039/D4SU00056K.
If you have a wish or a question, feel free to reply to this Email. Otherwise, wish you a beautiful week! See you again on the 12th : )
Edited by Patrick Penndorf Connection@ReAdvance.com Lutherstraße 159, 07743, Jena, Thuringia, Germany Data Protection & Impressum If you think we do a bad job: Unsubscribe
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