Personal Note From Patrick, The Editor

Hi Reader, what’s the next sustainable action you’ll take?

Unless you have a plan, you’ll probably stall. But how should you know what to go for next?

That’s what we’ll discuss today.

Many think simply knowing what to do is enough - but the real key to action lies in how we prioritize the next step:

Number Of The Day

So far, I’ve collected about 115 practices and principles to make labs more sustainable for our summit in October. They’re a great source of inspiration if you’d like to see what might be possible in your own lab too. If you know of more, I’d love to hear them. In the meantime, here’s our HPLC guide - a good example of how many concrete practices can grow out of just a few solid principles.

115

Convincing Leadership To Quantify

​In a previous lesson, we looked at how you can identify potential actions to make your lab greener.

But the next challenge many face is that they get overwhelmed with all the options.

Many possibilities - but which to start with? Which to bring up in a meeting? Which to suggest to your students?

I recommend ranking potential actions across three dimensions.

However, to avoid the mistake most people make when laying out a plan, you need to differentiate properly to really get value:

1) Impact

Starting with what has the largest effect makes sense, but “impact” isn’t one thing. Look at it on three levels:

• Environmental Impact
  Which option reduces plastic, energy, or reagents the most—especially over time? Compounding matters. Saving 10 tips per run with 100 samples and 90 runs/year makes a big impact.
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• Structural Impact
  What has strong signal value to use in a case study or that helps culture change? Also consider: what would others like to see changed?

• Personal Impact
  What are you excited to do? What sparks your curiosity or fascination? Motivation matters. If an action gives you that “gut-yes” feeling, that matters a lot.

These factors often overlap, but usually only one or two really matter. Asking these questions helps to clarify your goal for this round of improvements.

2) Simplicity

The simpler an action is, the better. Drop the attitude that “the low hanging fruits” do not have a big impact – see this publication saving 65% and this case study saving 69% of plastic waste.

• Effort & steps: How many actions until the outcome happens? Fewer is better.
• Preparation: Do you need approvals, checks, or materials first? (e.g., moving a freezer from −80 °C to −70 °C is easy, but first confirm regulated samples, audit affected experiments, and notify owners.)
• People involved: More stakeholders = more time.

Straightforward changes should be prioritized because you can complete them faster and therefore more of them.

3) Likelihood of success

Some ideas are effective and simple on paper but become a pain in the real world.

Therefore, you want to consider aspects such as:
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• Dependencies: Do you need facilities, purchasing, or waste management on board?
• Adoption: Will colleagues accept and use it?
• Consistency risk: Will change remain or can your action be carried forward next year by someone else?
• Will the action be too much to handle if unexpected challenges come up?

Example: Waste separation is straightforward, but will others use the right bins? Will the waste manager separately discard the waste? Will the recycling facility actually re/downcycle the waste?

For those Who Don’t Like To Use Intuition

A quick scoring method (fast, not fancy) - for each idea, give 1–5 points for Impact, Simplicity, and Likelihood of Success. Don’t be universal, just score relative among the options you consider.

If you’re torn between two similar scores, pick the one you’re most likely to finish this week. Done beats perfect.

If you still can’t decide, toss a coin—and commit.

Applying The Knowledge

There’s no single right answer to what you should start with, but this process will:

• Likely reveal factors you hadn’t considered
• Giving you some intuition for what you really want to do first (remember, motivation drives completion).

Now make it concrete:

Once you’ve chosen, set a deadline in your calendar. Even if it seems ridiculous, it will form a habit that becomes crucial once you tackle bigger actions. Also, it keeps you accountable even if unexpected work comes up.

Second, if possible, add your planned change directly to your protocol or SOP.

Mark it as a planned update (use a note or a different color). This creates documentation and acts as a reminder so you don’t lose momentum.

Finally, move step by step and build a hierarchy or timeline for your changes. You can stack actions if you have waiting times (due to emails, feedback, or other's actions).

Finally, plan follow-ups when others are involved.

When will you send a reminder email if someone doesn’t answer? When will you share resources with your lab after raising the topic in a meeting? When will you introduce your student to the next tip?

Upcoming Lesson:

Funding For Sustainable Labs

How We Feel Today

References

Penndorf, P., 2024. Reducing plastic waste in scientific protocols by 65% - practical steps for sustainable research. FEBS Lett., 598(11), 1331–1334. doi:10.1002/1873-3468.14909.

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.

If you have a wish or a question, feel free to reply to this Email.
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Otherwise, wish you a beautiful week!
See you again on the 11th : )

Find the previous lesson click - here -​

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Edited by Patrick Penndorf
Connection@ReAdvance.com
Lutherstraße 159, 07743, Jena, Thuringia, Germany
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