Hi Reader, I’ve heard from many scientists that teaching is the most fulfilling work they’ve ever done.
Teaching students and new colleagues is a powerful tool that is all too often overlooked.
Of note, we previously talked about how to convince others, including some common mistakes to avoid.
Therefore, we will explore how to effectively embed sustainability in your teaching in today's lesson:
Today's Lesson: A Strategy For Your Teaching
How we can anchor sustainable practices early on
Number Of The Day
A few weeks ago, I was consulting at a research institute. A PI and I enthusiastically agreed on >12°C holding temperatures for PCRs. Although the PI assured me this was standard in his lab, the student who was with us admitted that she had heard about it but felt too insecure to ever change the temperature… Yes, in teaching, there are always 2 people involved - it's not enough to suggest change, it's about how we anchor a topic in our students minds:
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Teaching Sustainability Effectively
Teaching sustainability yields three profound benefits for the student: First, it avoids them having to reinvent the wheel.
Just a side note: the number of grains on the 63th and 64th chess field are: 4 989 173 378 427 387 904 and then 9 978 346 756 854 775 808 (Nine quintillion or nine to the power of eighteen)
Secondly, it helps the learner feel part of a community.
Finally, it shapes the next generation of scientists, embedding sustainability as a core, practical concern rather than an optional add-on.
Although it should be straightforward, many struggle: When to mention it to avoid overwhelming students? Would students realize the importance? What motivates them to work more sustainably?
How to include Sustainability effectively
There is a simple solution: tying sustainability to concepts students already know and value.
That means you do not need to artificially make up situations or confront your students with a whole different perspective. Instead, connect it to topics such as the following:
Best Practices
Everybody can follow a printed protocol, but normally we teach our students a few special tricks on top.
Here, you can link internal and external motivators by pointing out how these best practices help them work more efficiently, faster, and therefore, more sustainable:
Example: Setting Up Master Mixes Teaching students to create master mixes instead of preparing each reaction separately is a common tip.
By pipetting larger volumes at once, accuracy improves significantly—pipetting 50 µL is inherently more precise than 1 µL, especially for inexperienced hands. On top, it often saves time and allows you to demonstrate how pipette tips can be saved.
You can even go so further, mentioning the order of pipetting. For instance, when preparing a master mix for PCR or similar protocols, adding water to the mix first allows you to reuse the same tip for multiple ingredients.
Health & Safety
We all care about our own safety but associated measures are often considered trivial or unnecessary.
We can hardly make people care more about themselves but we can teach them the importance of proactively following these measures to ensures a more sustainable research practice:
Tip: Click to Enlarge. On the left, you see a playful way to encourage people to shut the sash. Obviously, coming up with creative or playful ideas can take your teaching to the next level—just make sure not to force it. On the right, you see a chart that lists several solvents and their greener alternatives. This chart was created by Beyond Benign, which offers additional resources on the topic (and here is also an excellent publication on it).
Example: Hazardous chemicals.
Many chemicals and reagents are as much a risk for health as they are for the environment.
Teaching students to check whether greener alternatives are available (see our previous lesson here) will make them engage with their experiments in more depth. And once it clicks they will forever be grateful that you cared about their health.
Moreover, greener tissue fixation, or xylene-free mounting media protects both the user and the environment. It’s a great way to make people care about the often tedious safety instructions.
Protocol Optimization
Protocols are often handed down without question. By teaching students to actively assess, rethink and optimize protocols, you will teach them a skill that few researchers develop.
While it gives your students the feeling of relevance and control, you lay the foundations for a skill that they will keep the rest of their lives.
If you like to learn more about HPLC optimization, here is the link to a previous lesson that addressed this topic. The graphic comes from a blog article, stating: "Effect of flow rate (indicated at the top of each peak; the label for 3 mL/min is not shown for clarity). Starting from 0.1 mL/min. the baseline of each chromatogram is offset by 5 mAU to facilitate visualization."
We talked about protocol optimizations to save plastic waste before. Another cool example is HPLC gradients: However, especially in modern systems, you can optimize gradients (including flow rates, column particle size or porosity) for much shorter run times without sacrificing data quality.
In essence, you find out where sustainable practice benefits another topic – best practices, health & safety or efficiency – and combine them together in your teaching.
A Bonus For You
There is one more bonus topic – I wrote about it in a dedicated blogfor you.
This blog also contains the following examples (can you correctly assign them to the topics?):
Knowing When (and Where) to Reuse Lab Plastics
Choosing Kits With Less Plastic
Effective Planning
Fume hoods
SPME
Applying The Knowledge
Teach with enthusiasm - your tone matters as much as your content. Making your students feel passionate about sustainability gives them a good feeling they will forever chase.
In a case study, a user experience group analyzed how different messages were perceived based on their tone. They found that, on average, 52% of the variability in desirability scores was explained by trustworthiness. Friendliness accounted for only an additional 8% of the variability when included in the regression analysis. However, what evoked trust depended on the context—security-related matters were perceived differently from health-related issues.
I would also advise to start new learners on the sustainable protocol by default In contrast, if you already introduced a student to the “original protocol”, let them master it first. Mid-protocol pivots often cause confusion in less experienced scientists.
And of course, colleagues will resist. But in those in whom you can ignite a fire, point them to additional resources - these lessons, I²SL, My Green Lab, ReAdvance. They will forever associate what they learn there with you.
In the end, sustainability is often just optimization of workflows. When students see it that way, lasting change follows naturally.
Upcoming Lesson:
A List of Sustainable Practices
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.
Thangamani, S.S., et al., 2025. Rethinking tissue preservation: a review of non-toxic and environmentally sustainable fixatives. Ann. Diagn. Pathol., 78, 152500. doi:10.1016/j.anndiagpath.2025.152500.
Byrne, F.P., et al., 2016. Tools and techniques for solvent selection: green solvent selection guides. Sustain. Chem. Process, 4, 7. doi:10.1186/s40508-016-0051-z.
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 7th : )
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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