I thought this might be of great value to you as it is a compilation of actions that have been safely adopted by other scientists.
Here is how you can use it for your own lab:
Today's Lesson: A List Of Practices For You
What we can do to make our labs more sustainable
Number Of The Day
I have collected 49 sustainable practices that can help optimize our protocols and procurement. These cover several areas - from waste reduction practies to experimental design. This list is special because it compiles experiences from several labs and includes both a general approach and concrete examples. Therefore, let’s have a look at how you can make your workflows more sustainable:
49
Compiling Sustainable Practices
Before a list of sustainable practices can be of help to you, you need a little understanding of the underlying principles.
In this publication, a colleague and I outlined how to conceptualize sustainability in a practical and applicable manner.
I would recommend checking out the publication - there you will find how to understand sustainability in science in detail. In it, we defined Reduction as the main principle; i.e., keeping only what is essential for a successful experimental outcome, rather than prioritizing, for example, comfort. This is also why sustainable practice generally leads to time and cost savings.
We used the core principles of sustainable practice, the 6R to outline how you can create a greener lab.
In essence, reduction is king. Rethinking and rejecting enable you to identify what to reduce. Reusing and repairing are the actions to take. Finally, if wasting is inevitable, enable recycling pathways.
A Compilation For You
However, translating those principles into concrete actions is not always easy.
This is why I was hired as a consultant to optimize the workflows of a research institute a few weeks ago.
I spoke to several groups and worked with some of them to see what they have already established and where I could identify potential for optimization.
What makes this list special is that the actions are based on my own experience and on what I’ve seen others successfully implement.
How to use such a list?
Basically, you just go through it and get inspired. Grasping the overarching idea is the key.
Then you just need to take a few minutes and review your protocols - most often, ideas will come automatically.
If you struggle: Imagine you would need to pay for each consumable and each chemical as well as the working time of the person performing the experiment. This will allow you to review each step from a new perspective with a strong incentive to reduce.
Otherwise, it can also be helpful to team up with a colleague. Watch over each other's shoulder as you do your experiments.
The endowment effect describes the tendency to value what we own, love, or create ourselves much higher than the value we attribute to the very same object when it has no, or less, relation to us. I would argue that we see something similar in science - we believe our protocols must stay the same simply because we've always done them that way. Here is an amazing blog post about this topic and the publication in the background of the picture.
Unfortunately, we easily become blind to the protocols we perform repeatedly - thus, an unbiased mind will see new opportunities.
Or… just be lazy and hire someone like me. 😄
A Little Heads-Up
There are more practices related to instruments, water use, and lab organization... that could be valuable to you.
We are about to finish a full list, which we will hopefully share during our annual summit on the 15th and 16th of October. The summit is totally free, and you can pre-register here to secure your access to the list.
Applying The Knowledge
This list cannot help unless you use it. But there are a few mental challenges.
At first, don’t think you will be overwhelmed.
The anxiety of feeling overwhelmed is just a quick attempt by your mind to distract you.
When thinking about tasks, we are likely to overestimate the amount of effort necessary. In my experience, there is an initial threshold to overcome; thereafter, working becomes much easier. Just when we start to truly tire, we feel the effort rising again. However, this usually doesn’t set in until after 60–90 minutes of work. In terms of productivity, we often overestimate how many simple tasks we can complete and underestimate how long difficult tasks will take. To my mind, this is due to our mind’s tendency to discourage difficult challenges. Of course, the timescale might differ for you and for different tasks, but in general, I think once you get through the first three minutes, you will feel whether it’s the right task to pursue or whether you should do something else instead. The scales are, of course, somewhat arbitrary.
What often helps is to just set a 5-minute timer - open the list, and allow yourself to let the time run out if you really don’t feel like going through it. However, you almost always will.
Then, mark the points that interest you. After that, decide which ones you want to integrate into your workflows.
Don’t try to read, figure out how to implement, and reschedule your experiments all at the same time. Why?
Recently, I was invited by Wiley and Sartorius to give a talk on how to make sustainability happen safely.
This is one slide from this presentation. At the top, you can see the five tactics I have shared: 1. Differentiate between where changing practices is safe and where it is not, 2. Go step by step, 3. Make sure your mindset is right — i.e., you have the motivation and time, 4. Have enough experience and a thorough understanding of your protocol, and 5. Implement controls. The picture on the right is from this publication. I used it to demonstrate how I would assess neuronal morphology, growth, and synaptic plasticity to check up on my changes to reduce plastic waste.
My key takeaway: get inspired, evaluate what might apply to you, and then only go for what you feel comfortable with - planning it out before you do it.
Finally, implement at most one change per protocol or per day. This will make sure you don’t overload yourself.
Upcoming Lesson:
A Guide To Sustainable Instrument Use
How We Feel Today
References
Penndorf, P. et al., 2023. A new approach to making scientific research more efficient – rethinking sustainability. FEBS Lett., 597(19), 2371–2374. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.14736.
Kahneman, D. et al., 1990. Experimental tests of the endowment effect and the Coase theorem. J. Polit. Econ., 98(6), 1325–1348. doi:10.1086/261737.
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 14th : )
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