How To Meet Sustainability Requirements in the Lab of Today

1 Sustainability in the lab is not just about turning off the lights at the end of the day. It’s about creating a culture where greener practices are built into everything you do, from how you design an experiment to the way you dispose of its by-products. For bench scientists, this can feel overwhelming at first. After all, labs are resource-hungry by nature, full of plastics, solvents, energy-hungry equipment and single-use consumables. But the truth is, many of the biggest wins for sustainability don’t require huge investment or disruption. Think of this guide as a starting point: a practical toolkit of habits and hacks you can build into your daily workflow. None of them will single-handedly save the planet, but together they will add up. And, in the process, they may make your science smoother, cheaper and even more reproducible. Smarter plastics use in the lab Single-use plastics are one of the biggest environmental burdens of modern research. Pipette tips, conical tubes and petri dishes pile up quickly, with many destined for incineration. Cutting down doesn’t mean compromising sterility or safety, it’s about being smarter in what you use, reuse and recycle. Start with the basics: pipette tip boxes. Many manufacturers offer refill systems, where sterile inserts slot into reusable racks. Instead of throwing away bulky boxes, you can keep reusing the same rack. The same goes for reusable glassware. Swapping disposable plastic culture bottles or reagent containers for glass alternatives (where safe and practical) is one of the easiest changes you can make. To take it further, set up a plastic reuse cycle within your lab: • Identify consumables that can be sterilized like centrifuge tubes or certain bottles. • Create a reuse station near your autoclave or dishwasher. • Assign rotation so that items are washed, checked and returned to stock weekly. It’s worth checking if your institute or supplier offers a recycling scheme for lab plastics. Quite often, the companies that supply now also collect and recycle tip boxes, Falcon tubes and various packaging materials. Adding a labelled recycling bin next to your plastic waste container is often all it takes to change habits. How To Meet Sustainability Requirements in the Lab of Today Nick Gaunt, PhD Guide HOW TO MEET SUSTAINABILITY REQUIREMENTS IN THE LAB OF TODAY 2 Guide Tip: Keep a tally of what you reuse or recycle for a month. You’ll be surprised at how quickly the numbers add up, and having comprehensive sustainability data makes it easier to convince your peers or seniors to support bigger initiatives. Waste less, save more Staying on how quickly the numbers add up, every scientist has been guilty of making “just a bit extra” buffer or medium, only to throw it away weeks later. Over-preparation is one of the most common, and most avoidable, sources of waste in the lab. A greener approach starts with planning volumes more carefully. For buffers that degrade quickly, make smaller batches and top them up only as needed. Yes, it takes a little more time in the moment, but it avoids liters of unused reagent going to waste. Another simple win is the use of aliquoting. By splitting reagents into smaller working volumes, you can easily prevent repeated freeze-thaw cycles that degrade chemicals, meaning they last longer and you use less. The financial benefits are equally compelling. The prices of certain solvents, specialty reagents and even plastics are rising. Many labs that adopt stricter waste tracking report a noticeable drop in expenditure within months. Sustainable science isn’t just better for the planet, it’s better for your hard-fought for grant budget. Tip: Set up a chemical sharing scheme across departments. Before you order that new bottle of expensive antibody, check if another group has it in their freezer. Not only does sharing reduce waste, but it could strengthen collaboration. Energy efficiency in everyday lab work Labs are notoriously energy-intensive spaces, sometimes consuming five times more energy than a typical office building of the same size. But not all of this is unavoidable, much of it comes from inefficient equipment use. For example, take ultra-low freezer settings. By lowering the setpoint from –80 °C to –70 °C, you can cut energy use by up to 40% without compromising sample integrity. Even better, organize your freezer storage so that you can find samples quickly and reduce door-open time. Fume cupboards are another hidden energy sink. An active fume cupboard with an open sash can consume the same energy as several houses. In the labs that I called home throughout my bench career, we tried to make “shut the sash” a lab mantra, and posted visual reminders. Timers and smart plugs are cheap ways to avoid leaving shakers, heating blocks or lights running overnight. And when it comes to lighting, LED retrofits are the easy, quick-win – low-hanging fruit that pay off quickly. Tip: Start with an energy audit. Even something as simple as tracking which instruments are left on unnecessarily can identify quick wins and make the case for new policies. HOW TO MEET SUSTAINABILITY REQUIREMENTS IN THE LAB OF TODAY 3 Guide Embedding sustainability into experimental design Going green isn’t just about cleaning up after yourself, it’s about thinking ahead. Building sustainability into your experimental design is one of the most powerful steps you can take. Green chemistry principles can guide you to minimize the use of hazardous solvents, reduce reaction scales and prioritize safer alternatives. For example, replacing phenol-chloroform extraction with magnetic bead-based nucleic acid purification eliminates toxic waste while often improving reproducibility. When planning an experiment, ask yourself: • Can this be scaled down to use less reagent? • Is there a safer alternative solvent or buffer? • Can I simulate this step digitally (e.g., molecular modeling) before committing to the wet lab?) In teaching labs, simulations or virtual experiments can often replace physical runs that consume resources, without compromising learning outcomes. Tip: Add a “sustainability checkpoint” to your experimental planning. Just like you have to consider safety in the lab, ask yourself what the environmental footprint of your workflow will be. Smarter sourcing and procurement What comes into the lab matters as much as what leaves it. Greener procurement starts with choosing suppliers who prioritize sustainability, many now provide certifications or detailed environmental impact statements for their products. Whenever possible, buy in bulk or refill formats. This reduces packaging waste and cuts down on transport emissions. Similarly, sourcing locally (for media, plastics or dry ice) reduces the carbon footprint of shipping. Don’t overlook the hidden lifecycle of your products. Reagents that require cold-chain shipping or high-energy manufacturing processes carry a larger footprint than simpler alternatives. By factoring this in, you can make more informed choices. Tip: Ask yourself if the group really needs this. Could we share with another group? Is there a greener supplier? Embedding this pause into your ordering routine will save both money and waste. Keeping it compatible Going green doesn’t mean throwing caution to the wind. Some sustainability shortcuts can backfire if they compromise data quality or safety. HOW TO MEET SUSTAINABILITY REQUIREMENTS IN THE LAB OF TODAY 4 Guide • Reusing plastics: Only reuse items that can be safely sterilized. Don’t cut corners on sterility for the sake of sustainability. • Reducing fume cupboard use: Always prioritize safety when handling volatile or toxic chemicals. The “shut the sash” rule applies only when the hood isn’t in active use. • Switching solvents: Greener alternatives are great, as long as you confirm they don’t interfere with your assay readouts. Some substitutes can alter reaction kinetics. • Energy savings: Freezer temperature shifts should be validated with your sample type; certain biomolecules may degrade faster at higher setpoints. Tip: Keep a compatibility log in your lab. When you trial a new greener method, note whether it affected yield, reproducibility or safety. We learn more from our failures in the lab than our successes, and preventing any repeated mistakes helps build a collective knowledge base. Final considerations: Beyond the bench Meeting sustainability requirements in today’s labs isn’t just about individual habits; it’s about culture and infrastructure. Many funding bodies and journals now require statements on sustainability, and institutions are adopting frameworks like My Green Lab certification to track progress. Emerging technologies are also helping. AI-driven lab scheduling can optimize freezer use or instrument time, while cloud-based chemical inventory systems prevent over-ordering. Even automation is playing a role, with robotic systems designed to minimize reagent use and waste. For researchers, the personal payoff is clear, as greener practices save money, reduce errors and make your experiments more reproducible. For any production or research institutions, they can demonstrate a commitment to environmental responsibility that could boost reputation, as well as attract additional funding. Above all, sustainability in the lab is not a box-ticking exercise, but a mindset shift. The goal, at this stage, is not perfection, but progress in small, cumulative steps that transform the lab culture over time. So, if you start with even one of the tips in this guide, you’re already part of that shift. And if every bench scientist did the same, the collective impact on the scientific industry and academic institutions would be enormous. Sponsored by: About the author: Dr. Nick Gaunt is a distinguished figure in the realms of science and marketing and holds a BSc (hons) and an MSc in Chemistry, specializing in Nanotechnology. Pursuing his passion for addressing global challenges, he completed a PhD at the University of Exeter.