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:
Today's Lesson: How To Know What To Do Next
Prioritization that actually leads to action.
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.
Click on it to enlarge the picture.
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.
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.
I found this drawing like other cool ones on Behaviorgap.com and thought it fits perfectly—because we, as scientists, often underestimate how valuable the simplest solutions can be.
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:
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.
You can even ask ChatGPT to give you a structure to put in your points - but thereafter, fill it out locally to avoid wasting energy from servers :).
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.
It doesn't need to be fancy but a deadline helps - both consciously and subconsciously.
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. Otherwise, wish you a beautiful week! See you again on the 11th : )
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
Personal Note From Patrick, The Editor Hello Reader, before we dive into the lesson: I want to invite you to register for our annual online summit, where you’ll get a complete step-by-step guide and an Excel template for quantifying your lab’s impacts. I spent quite a few hours putting these together because I thought they would make your life much easier. There’s more to say about them, which is why I’ll be sharing them in our summit! But what if your goal is to convince leadership to take...
Personal Note From Patrick, The Editor Hi Reader, let me quickly follow up on something we discussed last week. I’ve put together an (almost) exhaustive list of ways to make your HPLC more sustainable - you can take a look here. As you might know, I provide consulting for labs and institutes. And to inspire you, let me share the most creative practices I observed during my last job: Today's Lesson: A Sustainable Lab-Walk Through Showing you what a sustainable lab can look like Number Of The...
Personal Note From Patrick, The Editor Hi Reader, I hope you are doing well! I found that there is little discussion about making instruments in your lab more sustainable. This has always surprised me. There is so much potential and several companies are continuously innovating. However, limited experience and expertise might often be the restricting factors. Therefore, I have put together an overview for you - including concrete examples for HPLC and some other instruments: Today's Lesson:...
