Holiday greetings and our greenest wishes Easy Green Lab tips for 2021

The winter holiday is approaching, and soon it will be time for New Year’s resolutions. From the green thoughts corner, our (eco)friendly contribution to a bright 2021. We’ve come up with 12 simple ideas, so that you can give them a try, one per month:

January: A good month for cutting expenses. Being mindful of your use of materials and planning your experiments carefully reduces costs. It also protects reproducibility.

February:Try to use more glassware. Consumables are responsible for the biggest part of a lab’s carbon footprint. Autoclaves can reuse water and use power from the regular supply, therefore, autoclaving and reusing has lower footprint.

March: A desktop computer consumes 171W when on, and a third of it when in standby. Per year, this can quickly become about 2% of the energy expenditure per capita. Remember to turn off your devices. Also the Odissey and GelDoc computer, and the lights of the communal areas!

April: Month of the literature... Let’s think about e-mails! Were you aware that your daily e-mails could be worth 1kg CO2? By making good choices we can be kind to each other and to the planet. Clear, informative e-mails avoid follow-up. Also, think if your e-mail might be redundant, if you’ll see that person soon. Finally, thanking in advance is controversial, but it saves that extra thank you e-mail.

May: Have you noticed people cooling down their agarose under running water? This petty things pile up at the end of the year. Let materials cool down by contact with the air, swirling them a bit. The air around us is for free! This is just an example. Share yours with the world.

June: Halfway through another year, are you still keeping up with your sports? A lift consumes 3% to 5% of the energy in a “regular” building. Starting, braking, and heavy loads are costly: leave that for the deliveries, they’ve got no choice. In rush hours, personal experience tells that you’re faster walking to the 7^th floor than waiting for the lift. Not convinced? See for yourself. You can make it a fun competition with your colleagues: who’s the fittest nerd in the department?

July: Chemical safety cabinets and ventilation take up as much energy as several households. Yes, that’s more than a ULT freezer. Turn of your cabinets and flow hoods at the end of the day. What else can be turned off?

August: Maybe we’re all more social in the summer. How social are you with sharing protocols? Standard operating protocols help reproducibility. Also, talking to your colleagues before embarking in something new may proof useful and avoid frustration.

September: The new academic year is here. Time for new books, new learning objectives, a fresh start. How about a mind-purifying stock clean-up? And, if you’re handy with databases… maybe think of a new way of keeping track of your samples. Everyone knows Excel sheets can get messy: it made the BBC news.

October: It’s getting colder: tea months approaching! Do you take your own mug with you wherever you go? Use it for your take away coffees, show it off when visiting other departments. And maybe share a tea bag with your favourite colleague. 

November: Yes! November is the month we talk about prostates. Let’s open up at work as well. You can be open about your data, or about your failed experiments. It could also be time to tackle things that don’t work at the department. Or to confide your own personal struggles to someone. Science is growing fast and a sustainable future lies in optimal teamwork.

December: It’s difficult to think of original presents. A temperature holding bottle, a textile bag for sandwiches, a yoghurt-to-go cup of silicone fruit huggers… They all fit in a shoe!

Month by month, step by step, we learn, create and discover. In these crazy times more than ever, we need to think ahead. Hoping to have provided you with some long-lasting positivity, we wish you a cosy, cheerful and homely holiday and the very best for 2021.

A blog by Estel Collado Camps