How we slashed our lab’s carbon footprint

Dom Byrne is a freelance radio and podcast producer based in Brighton, UK.

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Analytical chemist Jane Kilcoyne was working in her biotoxin monitoring lab one day in 2018 when she noticed a bin overflowing with plastic waste. The observation prompted her to join forces with like-minded colleagues and develop a package of measures aimed at reducing their lab’s carbon footprint. Their efforts include reducing energy consumption, composting shellfish waste, polystyrene recycling, and digitizing documentation.

Labs are estimated to use 10 times more energy and five times more water than office spaces, she says, and the average bench scientist uses around 10 times more single-use plastics than the average person.

Kilcoyne, who works at the Marine Institute, a government agency responsible for marine research, in Galway, Ireland, describes how their efforts feed into the thirteenth of 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations in 2015 (to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts).

How to Save Humanity in 17 Goals is a podcast series that profiles scientists whose work addresses one or more of the SDGs. Episodes 13–18 are produced in partnership with Nature Sustainability , and introduced by Monica Contestabile, its chief editor.

Each episode of this six-part Working Scientist podcast series ends with a sponsored slot from La Trobe Institute for Sustainable Agriculture & Food in Melbourne, Australia, where we hear about how its researchers are focusing on the SDGs.

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-024-02899-0

Paid content: La Trobe Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Food (LISAF)

In this podcast series from LISAF at La Trobe University in Australia, we’ll hear how groundbreaking work is driving the university’s holistic approach to food security. This ‘paddock-to-gut’ philosophy is successfully delivering innovative research and significant academic and industry partnerships.

In episode 1, Professor Theo Farrell, Vice-Chancellor and President of La Trobe University, explains how La Trobe is contributing to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2: Zero Hunger, as well as the impact of the university’s strategic investment in research and training in the agri-food sector.

Find out more about this type of paid content .

Monica Contestabile 00:09

Hello, this is How to Save Humanity in 17 Goals , a podcast brought to you by Nature Careers in partnership with Nature Sustainability .

I am Monica Contestabile, chief editor of Nature Sustainability . This is the series where we meet the researchers working towards the Sustainable Development Goals agreed by the United Nations and world leaders in 2015.

Since then, in a huge global effort, thousands of academics have been using those targets to tackle the biggest problems that the planet faces today.

Each episode ends with a sponsored slot from La Trobe Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Food in Melbourne, Australia, where we hear about how its researchers are focusing on the SDGs.

In this episode, we look at Sustainable Development Goal number 13: to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. And we hear from a marine researcher in Ireland who embarked on large-scale initiatives to find greener ways to work.

Jane Kilcoyne: 01:22

Hello, my name is Jane Kilcoyne, and I am an analytical chemist working in the Marine Institute in Galway, Ireland.

The marine institute is a government agency responsible for the sustainable development of Ireland’s marine resources.

So I specialize in marine biotoxin monitoring, and have tried to take initiatives over the past number of years to reduce our lab’s environmental impact.

So Sustainable Development Goal number 13 is climate action. And according to the UN we all need to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

There is a climate disaster looming that will impact all of us, and we are ill-prepared for it.

So I’m very conscious of the impact that working in a lab has on the environment. And laboratories are estimated to use 10 times more energy and five times more water than office spaces, And the average bench scientist is estimated to use 10 times more single-use plastics than the average person.

And then you have to consider there’s a whole load of equipment, hazardous chemicals, personal protective equipment, etc.

So while science is important to society, we need to recognize that there are some negative outcomes from the work that we do, and the carbon footprint of laboratories is significant.

And given how serious the climate emergency is right now, we all need to make radical changes in how we live and work.

Okay, so I grew up in a coastal county called Sligo on the west coast of Ireland, and I was always interested in environmental issues.

And my main aim, I suppose, was to do science and study science and to work in the environmental field. So I did a science degree in the university here in Galway, and then did a Master’s in analytical chemistry in Dublin City University.

I then had research and analytical chemistry jobs in Dublin Technological University, and Queen’s University Belfast.

And then I returned to Galway to work at the marine institute, and after a few years I did a PhD focusing on marine biotoxins.

So aquaculture is the fastest-growing food sector globally. And within aquaculture, shellfish farming, (particularly shellfish such as mussels and oysters), is considered to be the most environmentally-friendly, sustainable and ethical, given that shellfish are the most basic of organisms.

They’re highly nutritious and one of the most sustainable sources of protein. And shellfish farming is an important sector for coastal and rural communities.

But one of the challenges for the sector is the occurrence of harmful algal blooms. So at certain times of the year, particularly in spring and summer time, algal blooms can occur, and some species can produce toxins that are harmful to human health, and also wildlife.

Shellfish are filter feeders and feed on algae, so when they consume the toxin-producing algae, the toxins can accumulate in the shellfish and render them unfit for human consumption.

And the EU has set regulatory limits for these toxins in shellfish. So farmers around the country need to send samples into our lab prior to being harvested and put on the market.

Jane Kilcoyne: 04:32

Our journey towards becoming more sustainable started back in 2018, coinciding with, but also because of Irish government climate and resource efficiency action plans, which all public sector bodies are required to implement.

So I was working in the lab one day, and I noticed that one of our bins was overflowing with plastic waste. And I just thought, there must be more environmentally-friendly alternatives to what we were using.

And in parallel, our facilities manager was focusing on reducing energy consumption throughout the institute. And others set up a system for composting our shellfish waste, and then separately, other colleagues set up a system for polystyrene recycling.

So when we all came together, we realized that these separate actions were having a significant impact on reducing our resource consumption and waste

Jane Kilcoyne: 05:29

In the biotoxin chemistry lab, we’re a team of seven, and we perform about 5000 analytical tests per year. And we worked out that we were producing about 4000 kilograms of waste per year, all of which was going to landfill, or for incineration.

Our samples are sent to the lab in polystyrene boxes. And now a company specializing in polystyrene recycling come on site to compact boxes into logs, and then these logs are sent to mainland Europe where they are recycled.

For example, they can be used in the construction industries, thermal insulation, or recycled back into fish boxes.

And as I mentioned earlier, our shellfish waste is now sent for composting. And shellfish waste is highly nutritious and makes for a great fertilizer for agriculture and horticultural purposes.

We also reduced our use of single use plastics by 69% by switching over from plastic to compostable containers for storing our samples. And replacing plastic centrifuge tubes and syringes with glass alternatives.

So in essence, by transitioning to a more circular economic model, we reduced the amount of waste going for landfill or incineration by more than 95%, from about 4000 to 130 kilograms.

And also, just to mention, by transitioning to digital document control, we reduced our paper consumption by more than 95%.

We reduced our hazardous chemical waste by 23% simply by extending the expiry dates of solution, and only preparing what was required.

Sometimes the expiry dates that are placed on solutions may be too short, and it’s just worthwhile testing whether the expiry dates can be extended, because we found for many of our solutions that they were stable for a lot longer than what had been assigned.

And we also switched where we could to to save, to less expensive solvents. The benefits are multiple, less cost, less time having to prepare solutions, and also safer working environments.

The biggest energy consumers in our laboratory are our fume hoods and our cold storage equipment, like bridges and freezers.

So each fume hood consumes the same energy as three and a half homes, and we have eight in our lab. So pre-2018 our fume hoods had been operating 24/7, and with the help of our facilities manager, we were able to reduce the operating time such that our energy consumption was reduced by more than 70%. And we did this by installing chemtrac filters, which traps any fumes coming from the solvent storage cabinets underneath.

And then we also had multiple cold storage units that were storing samples for more than 15 years that were no longer required.

Cold storage units not only consume high amounts of energy, but they also release highly potent greenhouse gasses.

So we set about clearing out all of these samples, which resulted in us being able to take multiple units out of use.

And overall, we reduced our coal storage energy consumption by about 20%. So we’re now much better organized, and we have detailed inventories and a schedule in place to defrost and clear out samples at least once yearly.

We published a paper in the journal PLoS Sustainability and Transformation that provides detailed information on how we achieved these reductions.

We operate to an ISO 1702, 5 standard. And we had to verify that all the changes we made did not have any impact on the integrity of the results.

Initially, there were concerns that results would be impacted by carryover and contamination by reusing the glassware.

But we performed experiments prior to the transition to show that this wouldn’t be a problem. And since the transition, we’ve had no issues whatsoever.

Also, there were concerns about extending expiry dates. But again, there were no issues.

In fact, I would say that strategies we put in place led to greater efficiencies and further enhanced our quality and health and safety systems.

And yes, there were some upfront costs, but we worked out that after about two-and-a-half years, these costs will be recouped, and after that, we were making significant financial savings.

Jane Kilcoyne: 09:34

For labs and organization embarking on similar efforts, I would recommend establishing a Green Team, which hopefully will attract people who are committed to environmental protection and are highly motivated.

A lot of these kind of actions come from the bottom-up and are voluntary, so it’s very important that there’s support from the top and that these efforts are recognized.

Also, labs should join a network. For example, in Ireland, we have Irish Green Labs. It’s a great way to get information, keep motivated, and meet like-minded people working in science.

And a lot of countries have such networks. And more recently, there’s been a lot more science journals specializing and publishing on sustainability topics, with a number of publications specifically on lab greening.

So it’s worth also reading the literature to get details on what other labs are doing in this area. I would also suggest that labs look into gaining some form of green certification.

And there are a number of certification bodies that do this, the main ones being My Green Lab and Leaf.

So when we were writing the paper that we published, Una Fitzgerald, who is a neuroscientist based in the Cúram lab in the University of Galway. She came to the Marine Institute and gave a talk about them becoming the first lab in Europe to become My Green Lab-certified.

And that inspired us to go down the same road. Certification process covers many categories, including community recycling and waste reduction, purchasing, water, energy equipment and travel.

So our lab was My Green Lab-certified at the highest level just recently. And the aim is to have all labs in the institute certified by 2025.

And as part of certification process, we participated in the International Freezer Challenge. And this is a program designed to promote more efficient use of laboratory cold storage equipment.

So there were about 2000 participants from 27 countries, and we won best small lab in the government sector, which was a very nice outcome for us.

Overall though, the challenge resulted in an energy reduction equivalent powering 6000 Irish homes for one year. So it’s a challenge well worth participating in.

So there are many benefits to becoming a green-certified lab. Having certification formalizes the culture of sustainability in an organization. It brings with it greater efficiencies, financial savings and greater staff engagement.

And studies have shown that working for a green and sustainable organization promotes innovation and boosts staff morale.

Having green certification will aid funding applications so funding agencies are more likely to spend taxpayers’ money on labs and organizations that have good track record on efficiency and sustainability. And the number of labs gaining green lab certification globally is increasing.

In fact, the UN aims to have more than 95% of pharma and medtech laboratories My Green Lab-certified at the highest level by 2030, to achieve Net Zero commitments.

So hopefully this will be achieved.

Apart from our efforts in the biotoxin chemistry lab, other green initiatives have taken place across the institute.

The facilities and Green Teams were instrumental in driving energy consumption down further through switch-off campaigns and raising awareness among staff.

Also, through building heating and lighting upgrades, energy consumption to date has been reduced by 41%. And earlier this year PV solar panels were installed in our buildings, which will offset 30% of our electricity consumption.

But our biggest energy consumer is the research vessel, which account for 85% for consumption. But with the changeover from marine gas oil to hydro-treated vegetable oil, the marine institute is well on target to reduce the overall emissions by 51% by 2030.

We also signed up to the All-Ireland Pollinator Plan back in 2018, which is a national program to protect pollinators. So we’ve created lovely, wildlife-friendly green spaces around our buildings, which are not only great for wildlife, but also great for staff.

Spending time in these kind of green spaces can boost mood, the immune system and productivity. And also, in the last couple of years, we have had caterers on site that provide only vegetarian food, that has gone down really well with staff. The food is delicious.

It would be great to see more changes in this area, and I think it would make a big difference if funding bodies mandated that labs be green certified prior to funding being awarded.

So currently, there’s a campaign called A Million Advocates for Sustainable Science that seeks to achieve this aim.

Some funding agencies do stipulate green potentials for funding, but not all.

Scientists, particularly research scientists, travel a lot to conferences, so they need to accommodate virtual attendees and presentations.

I recently presented at a conference in Barcelona virtually as I don’t want to fly anymore, which was great, but this wouldn't be the norm generally.

More case studies would also be great.And actually, there are a lot of labs around the world, particularly in low income countries, that operate on limited funding and resources. And many of them can still produce results of high integrity, often reusing plastic consumables, using older pieces of equipment, etc.

So it’d be good to learn more about labs that have always been operated sustainably, because they’ve had to.

There’s a lot of progress to be made in lab-greening efforts, but momentum is building, and hopefully the UN targets to have more than 95% of labs green certified by 2030 will apply not only to pharma and medtech labs, but to all laboratories.

Monica Contestabile 15:46

Thanks for listening to this series, How to Save Humanity in 17 Goals .

Join us again next time when we look at Sustainable Development Goal Number 14: how to conserve and sustainably use the oceans.

But before we do, next up we'll hear how researchers at La Trobe Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Food in Melbourne, Australia, the sponsor of this series, are working towards the targets set by the UN.

Caris Bizzaca: 16:20

I’m Caris Bizzaca, and welcome to this podcast series from the La Trobe Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Food at La Trobe University in Australia. I would like to start by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands where La Trobe University campuses are located in Australia, and to pay respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, as well as to Elders past, present, and emerging.

Across this six-episode series, you’ll hear from academics at the top of their fields as they discuss groundbreaking research happening at the La Trobe Institute for Sustainable Agriculture and Food, also known as LISAF. Through LISAF, La Trobe has developed a holistic approach to food security, and this ‘paddock-to-gut’ philosophy is delivering innovative research and significant academic and industry partnerships across the entire value chain.

Its success so far can already be seen in the Times Higher Education Impact Rankings, which measure university performance against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, or SDGs. In 2024, La Trobe was ranked first in Australia and fifth globally for SDG 2: Zero Hunger.

Now, stay tuned to hear first-hand about the research of LISAF as it delivers innovative solutions for sustainable and nutritious food production in a resource and climate-constrained world.

Theo Farrell: 17:46

We’re really interested in how we can translate research in practice and in policy and in the communities that we are embedded.

Caris Bizzaca: 17:52

That’s Professor Theo Farrell, Vice-Chancellor and President of La Trobe University in Victoria, Australia.

Theo Farrell: 17:59

When it comes to our research credentials, the story of La Trobe is one of just staggering trajectory. When you look at the university, in 2020, we were ranked 400th in the world. Today, in the QS World Rankings we’re ranked 217th. And so we actually received, this year, the QS award for the most improved university in Oceania over the last five years for institutions that are in the top 300. So we’re seeing rocket-ship trajectory in terms of improving of our research rankings.

Caris Bizzaca: 18:26

Professor Farrell feels that success is also captured in those Times Higher Education Impact Rankings that I mentioned earlier and their performance in SDG 2: Zero Hunger – but also SDG 3: Good Health and Well-being.

Theo Farrell: 18:42

So that’s around ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all. And so here, what I think is fantastic about the team at La Trobe is how they’re linking health and well-being with zero hunger. And so, when you look for instance at the La Trobe Institute for S ustainable Agriculture and Food, its mission statement is to deliver innovation across the entire value chain from paddock to gut. So it’s like, how can we design and produce climate-resistant sustainable farming but also, at the same time, improve nutrition to address preventable non-infectious diseases? So it’s this really holistic approach.

Caris Bizzaca: 19:17

This focus for La Trobe is not new.

Theo Farrell: 19:21

La Trobe has a long history, actually, of innovation in food and agricultural research. So in 2022, we celebrated the tenth anniversary of our Aus$288-million AgriBio facility located on our campus in Bundoora. That’s a major partnership between La Trobe and the Victorian state government. And it’s a joint venture facility that’s the largest agricultural R&D organization in the state.

Last year, we also opened our Aus$20-million glasshouse facility on the campus to support La Trobe’s researchers to produce crops that are more sustainable and at lower cost. And the glasshouse will also help us optimize the management of breeding of crops, so to support early disease detection, and importantly to use big data to improve crop yield, quality and plant health.

Caris Bizzaca: 20:07

This work falls under the remit of LISAF. Professor Farrell says the research is also significant for the university as it has four regional campuses across the Australian state of Victoria.

Theo Farrell: 20:18

The impact is going to be amplified by our regional campuses’ footprint because we have regional campuses in places like Mildura and Shepparton, which are major agricultural-producing areas in Victoria. So we’re investing Aus$25 million in the institute over the next five years to deliver on its mission. And our researchers are going to be working on some really interesting projects.

Caris Bizzaca: 20:40

These projects, which will be explored in future podcast episodes, include research into the long-term productive potential of land, how we can address the threat of food security, and the role AI and digital agriculture is playing in sustainability. It’s all part of the work of LISAF, which has five key research areas.

Theo Farrell: 20:59

One on farming systems, a second area around protected cropping, a third area on fit-for-purpose seeds, a fourth area on food, nutrition and health, and finally, a fifth area on food business, food security and digital agriculture.

So I am really excited about the opportunities for LISAF to work with industry partners to develop tests, scale and commercialize new food and beverage products, and access new markets.

Caris Bizzaca: 21:25

These industry partnerships are crucial, according to Professor Farrell.

Theo Farrell: 21:29

All universities are looking to develop industry partnerships, to have impact with their research. With La Trobe, it’s really fundamental to the approach that we’re taking.

So, if I talk about a couple of other areas where we’ve got very significant industry partnership activity, one is digital innovation, and we have a digital innovation hub, for instance.

Caris Bizzaca: 21:45

This digital innovation hub is in partnership with technology leader Cisco, as well as Optus, one of Australia’s largest telecommunication companies.

Theo Farrell: 21:53

And then also, for instance, one of the other areas that we’ve invested heavily is in bio innovation. And so, quite recently, we launched our Bio Innovation Hub. So this supports early stage biotech and agri-tech businesses providing access to a whole range of facilities.

And here, our larger ambition is to establish a new bio-innovation ecosystem in Melbourne’s north. And Melbourne is an amazing city in terms of the investment that’s occurred supported by the Victorian state in bio-innovation. It’s on a par with Cambridge in the United States and London and Bangalore. It’s one of the great centres of bio-innovation. A lot of it has been concentrated in Parkville around the medical precinct.

But now, what we’re seeing, anchored on La Trobe, is also the development of a bio-innovation ecosystem out in the north. And so, for instance, part of that will be the German biotech giant BioNTech. They’ve been revolutionizing mRNA drug design, and they’re building a clinical-scale manufacturing facility on our campus in Bundoora, Melbourne’s north.

And that, along with the new centre for AI and medical innovation that’s funded by the Victorian government, again on our campus, is going to enable us to do some really exciting things, in partnership with industry, to revolutionize personalized therapeutics for cancer and other diseases.

So you can see between bio-innovation, between the work we’re doing in digital innovation and then, also crucially, sustainable agriculture and food, the real makings of what’s going to be a very significant research and innovation precinct.

So La Trobe is a university that, I guess like many universities, is deeply purpose-driven and committed to contributing positively to the communities we serve. And so, I think the old view that some people might have of universities as ivory towers is long since gone. Most universities these days are really seeking to work with partners to have impact, and that is certainly the case in La Trobe.

Caris Bizzaca: 23:45

That was Professor Theo Farrell, Vice-Chancellor and President of La Trobe University. Join us for the next episode in the series where we will talk to Tony Bacic, Professor of Plant Biology and Director of LISAF, about the institute’s research goals and highlights.

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