Funds for sustainability in the lab
Jakob Schnetz für VolkswagenStiftung
From energy-intensive equipment and ventilation systems to consumables: scientific research laboratories consume a lot of energy and other resources. Chemist Prof. Dr Nico Bruns from TU Darmstadt explains why it pays to properly organise laboratories with the aim of achieving more sustainably.
Mr Bruns, why does it make sense to focus on laboratories in terms of sustainability?
Prof Nico Bruns: Laboratory buildings at universities consume many times more energy than conventional buildings with lecture theatres or normal rooms. I can put this in concrete terms at TU Darmstadt: the three chemistry buildings at the university are all among the top ten energy consumers at the university if you look at the individual buildings. This is only topped by the supercomputer. The high energy consumption in the buildings is due to the laboratory equipment: from centrifuges to refrigerators and freezers, but the building services – especially ventilation – are also a huge issue here and therefore also a huge lever in respect of achieving sustainability.
For example, an ultra-low temperature freezer at -80° alone consumes as much energy as a four-person household. If you set this refrigerator to -70° instead of -80°, which is sufficient for most samples, the appliance immediately consumes 25 to 30 per cent less electricity. These appliances are absolutely necessary, but you may ask yourself how much power is really needed?
There are various providers who can certify a laboratory as sustainable. What does such certification mean for the laboratories?
Prof. Nico Bruns: These sustainable lab programmes all work according to a similar principle: you are given an online questionnaire that you have to answer. Ultimately, this serves to make one reflect on what you have already organised in the lab and how. We have analysed the major programmes in detail and compared them in our publication.
There are various categories of questions, for example on energy and consumption, resource management – i.e. everything that goes in and out of the laboratory – or the management of research data. An experiment that has to be carried out twice because it has not been properly documented is a great waste of resources. There is additional information on these questions that helps to answer them. Then you have to see whether you have already implemented certain individual aspects or still need to do so. This gives you a basic evaluation – as well as feedback on what is already working well and where there is still room for improvement. If these suggestions are then implemented within a specified time window, you will receive certification. Exactly how this is done depends on the programme.
The certification levels to be achieved also differ between providers, but they are generally bronze, silver and gold. You may first achieve bronze and then aim to implement the silver standard the following year. This means that the required measures become more extensive and therefore a little more challenging to achieve.
Prof Dr Nico Bruns is Professor of "Sustainable Functional Polymers" at TU Darmstadt. He also heads the "Sustainable Laboratories Initiative" of the Department of Chemistry.
Is your own information checked?
Prof. Nico Bruns: It is important to point out that these certificates are not of the ISO type, which are highly standardised. The idea is that these are low-threshold programmes.
The type of "control" varies depending on the provider. In one case, for example, this is carried out by other working groups within the university that also take part in the certification programme. This means that it is "controlled" within the institution. Here, there is already a risk of greenwashing if everyone within the institution agrees that they want to look good and, if necessary, provide false information. Due to such criticism, another provider has recently started offering an external assessment of individual certificates for optimisation purposes.
It is generally not about suffocating the process in bureaucracy and highly formalised procedures. Once the first level has been achieved by simple means and the laboratory staff see that the next level is also possible with limited effort, the subsequent motivating effect should be utilised. The aim of the programmes is not a full-proof certificate, but to bring the groups understand that they can achieve the required low-threshold measures with ease.
Sustainability and occupational safety go hand in hand in the laboratory, just like sustainability and efficiency.
What are the advantages of certification for laboratories? And are there also disadvantages?
Prof. Nico Bruns: It's clear that it takes time at all levels of the working group, from the professor or leader of the working group, through the person in the team responsible for sustainability, to each and every individual in the lab. But the amount of work involved is to be kept as low as possible. The questionnaire that comes with the certification programme we use, for example, can be completed in half an hour. After that, you then have to allow time for the mutual peer review with another working group within the university. But the real work is held in the background, namely changing your processes in the lab.
But that's also the advantage, because it's all about organising a lab properly. A well-organised laboratory already does many of the things that are asked about, especially in the first basic levels. It can help other laboratories to optimise work processes and organisation and thus also increase their efficiency. Sustainability and occupational safety go hand in hand in the laboratory, just like sustainability and efficiency.
One example is the management of stocks of chemicals: the most unsustainable thing you can do is to have the same chemical on the shelf five times. This costs resources for production, money for purchasing and in the end, it eventually has to be disposed of as hazardous waste. And as a working group, we have to keep a list of chemicals in our stocks anyway.
In addition, addressing the issue can constitute a monetary incentive, at least at university level. If you pull the big energy levers, you can quickly make savings of several thousand to tens of thousands of euros, and these are costs the university no longer has to bear. Specifically, for example, we are working with our energy and building management team to optimise the ventilation system in the chemistry department and other laboratory buildings. This was done quite early on for one building because it was easy to implement. It resulted in energy savings of thirty to forty thousand euros per year – and that's just one building! In another building, we were able to optimise the ventilation system, which has also led to better functionality and thus increased user satisfaction and safety. Another example of how sustainability doesn't simply involve more effort, but also brings direct added value for users.
...many working groups are intrinsically motivated and want to actively support change in this area.
Does certification offer the laboratories further advantages, for example when applying for project funding?
Prof. Nico Bruns: The whole thing is slowly gaining momentum, because the topic is also receiving more attention from the funding bodies. On the one hand, there are those such as the Volkswagen Foundation, which take an incentive approach and offer to financially support certification. Others, such as the DFG or the EU's Marie Skłodowska-Curie programme, have made it conditional: here, as with other cross-cutting tasks, you have to include your handling of this topic when submitting proposals.
However, it must also be said that many working groups are intrinsically motivated and want to actively change in this area. The students and student councils are already much further along and have been demanding this for a long time. That's why it also belongs in the teaching labs.
How did you personally come to deal with the topic so intensively?
Prof. Nico Bruns: Before I was appointed to TU Darmstadt, I was at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow where I witnessed the introduction of a programme for certifying sustainable laboratories. I saw what could be done there. When I was appointed Professor of Sustainable Functional Polymers at TU Darmstadt, I realised that I wanted to show commitment in the area for which I am responsible and where I can make a difference – and in something that goes beyond my own research. It was essential to realise that this was a completely untapped field at our university and to initiate something and then network with others.
