Sustainable laboratories: a community-wide movement toward sustainable laboratory practices
Summary of contents
Science and technology are key to a more sustainable future in everything from tackling disease to developing clean energy technologies. Laboratories - in universities, research institutes, hospitals and companies - are essential to research, analysis and teaching. They often bring together several disciplines and involve different configurations and scales of wet, dry and computational facilities. Laboratory buildings, processes and equipment, by their nature, can be resource and energy intensive. Safely carrying out high-quality research can require temperature control, ventilation or high sterility. The sourcing, manufacture and disposal of specialised laboratory consumables and instruments all have an environmental footprint.
For this report scientists working in academia, industry and education have shared their views on minimising the environmental impacts of research. They highlight what they are already doing, the trade-offs they need to manage, and challenges they face. There is a strength of feeling to do more and they also give views about practical solutions as well as opportunities for changes in the wider research and innovation ecosystem.