51吃瓜网

Community building

Operating a sustainable lab is a community effort that depends on your day-to-day decisions, behaviours, and cooperation with lab-based faculty, students and staff.

A good way to start is by reflecting on your own actions in the lab: Consider the energy that powers your equipment, the origins and shipping of the supplies you buy, and where your lab鈥檚 waste and wastewater end up. Next, think about ways you and your lab colleagues can act to minimize the environmental impacts of your lab and refer to the tips below.

12 steps to get you started:

1. Print and display prompts, reminders, and instructions to help lab users implement sustainability actions in the lab such as the鈥�8 Actions for a Sustainable Lab 听辫辞蝉迟别谤.鈥�
2. Select a point person to implement and monitor sustainable practices in the lab. Also establish roles and responsibilities for lab members to support these practices.
3. Set and work towards some small achievable goals with your lab group. For example, turn off machines and lights when not in use, lower the fume hood sash, sort waste appropriately, and declutter/clean your lab and cold storage areas regularly.
4. Apply for funding to support your green lab efforts.
5. Keep learning! Familiarise yourself with resources such as McGill's Climate & Sustainability Strategy. Take the .
6. Add sustainability actions to your lab鈥檚 standard operating procedure or your lab manual.
7. Get certified as a sustainable lab. This will help you evaluate your lab鈥檚 status against current best practices, identify areas for change, and track your improvements over time.
8. Introduce and integrate visitors and new lab members to your lab's sustainable practices and initiatives.
9. Include information about lab sustainability measures in grant applications, such as in .
10. Sign the to push granting agencies to set expectations for efficiency, resiliency, and sustainability in scientific research.
11. Take the and compete with labs around the world to reduce the energy consumption of your lab's cold storage equipment.
12. Connect with other groups at McGill, such as the Sustainable Labs Working Group, and McGill鈥檚 Green Labs Initiative () community to get resources, ask questions, and share ideas.

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Waste management

Proper waste management in labs is crucial for the health and safety of lab users and waste handlers, and for environmental protection. 51吃瓜网aims to be zero-waste by 2035, diverting 90% of waste from landfills. This will reduce the costs of landfilling, conserve habitats, and improve community well-being.

Steps to get you started

• Reduce waste generation from the onset by optimizing the design of your experiments, adopting good procurement practices and keeping an up-to-date inventory of lab supplies and equipment. Refuse excess packaging from your suppliers.
• Reuse lab items when lab procedures allow. This helps to save the time and money involved in ordering and shipping new items. Invest in reusable labware or even washable towels instead of single use or disposable versions. Decontamination steps for labware are detailed in this . Finally, share surplus consumables with other labs in your department via .
• Recycle non-hazardous lab items following guidelines for 1) plastics, glass, metals and nitrile gloves and for 2) paper & packaging.

  • Once they were not in contact with a WHMIS controlled product or potentially infectious material, all recyclable plastics, glass, metal, and nitrile gloves, can be placed in the 鈥淧lastics, Glass & Metals鈥� collection bin. Clean dry paper and cardboard can be placed in the 鈥淧aper and Cardboard鈥� collection bin.

  • Here is a non-exhaustive list of chemicals that are not WHMIS-controlled, where the empty container can be disposed in the recycling bin:

    • TBS听
    • PBS听
    • Tris-HCL听
    • HBSS听
    • Unused culture media containers听
    • MOPS听
    • HEPES听
    • Sugars听
    • Amino acids听

Proper sorting is key

• Ensure all lab users review and understand the for all types of lab waste and surplus items.

• Align your lab鈥檚 collection bin labels with McGill鈥檚 . Download and print signage or contact your building director for a quote for waste bin stickers.

Notes on plastics

• Choose reusable glass instead of plastic vials, large pipettes, petri dishes, etc. whenever possible.

  When it is necessary to use plastic items, reuse them where possible. See .

  These plastics are collected and recycled through current municipal waste handling systems:

  • Resin #1 Polyethylene terephthalate (PET): Transparent, semi-rigid to rigid and very lightweight plastic used in lab bottles, culture flasks, and face shields.
  • Resin #2 High-density polyethylene (HDPE): Opaque, frosted white or colored plastic used in chemical bottles, wash bottles, carboys, tanks.
  • Resin #4 Low-density polyethylene (LDPE): Flexible and almost unbreakable plastic used in reagent boats.
  • Resin #5 Polypropylene (PP): Semi-flexible translucent, opaque, or colored plastic used in items that require frequent sterilisation: Plastic conical and microcentrifuge tubes, cryogenic vials, pipette tips, well plates, tip boxes and racks.

• Some plastics are collected but not recycled currently and should be avoided where possible.

  • Resin # 6听Polystyrene and expanded polystyrene (Styrofoam). Here is a list local firms that collect polystyrene for recycling. However, the cost of collection and recycling are at the lab or administrative unit鈥檚 expense.
  • Resin #7 Polycarbonate, biodegradable, photo-sensitive, some Nalgene鈩� containers, and plant-based plastics. Plastics that lack a resin code.

Other lab materials

• Follow Hazardous Waste Management guidelines for all chemical, biomedical, and radioactive waste.

  To determine which category to choose for your biomedical waste, consult this decision chart.

  For used and end-of-life assets such as IT equipment, research equipment, furniture, and anything purchased with research grant funding, follow these guidelines.

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Go further

Explore ways of reducing, reusing, and recycling waste with lab colleagues and neighboring labs, such as:

• Reuse gel packs and ice packs, or .

• Take-back programs for lab goods and packaging from major lab suppliers.

• Solvent recycling within labs using a distillation system. NOTE: Central solvent facility is not yet available at McGill.

Energy conservation

Research labs tend to be energy guzzlers. While some of this energy usage is unavoidable, there are best practices to help labs be more efficient and environmentally friendly.

Fume hoods and freezers are the most energy-intensive components of a lab. Here are a few things you can do to minimize the energy consumption of fume hoods, cold storage, and other equipment in your lab.

Fume Hoods

51吃瓜网has more than 850 fume hoods across its campuses. One fume hood with a sash that is halfway open 24/7 will consume the equivalent energy of four Canadian households in a year. The Shut the Sash Project showed that keeping the sash lowered reduced energy consumption and costs by 86% and 77% in the Life Sciences Complex .

• Shut the sash. Unless somebody is working under the hood, the sash should be lowered at all times to properly contain substances and exhaust fumes from the lab. Turn off the fume hood lights

• Place prompts to remind lab users to close the hood. Download Shut the Sash stickers.

• Check that your fume hood is regularly maintained. This can include converting unused fume hoods to a dormant state - saving $2,500 per fume hood per year. If a fume hood is unused in your lab for more than six months, contact Facilities to determine whether to temporarily decommission it depending on the type of hood, ventilation system, and lab setup.

Cold storage

• Purchase energy-efficient cold storage units, such as . The upfront cost might be a little higher, but your lab will save money over the lifetime of the appliance.

  Ensure your cold storage units are properly and regularly maintained. Frost and dust buildup greatly reduce heat exchange inside and outside the appliance and forces the compressor to work harder to reach the desired set point, which reduces the lifespan of the appliance.

  • Defrost freezers regularly to avoid frost buildup.
  • Clean the coil at the back of appliances to avoid dust buildup. Contact your building manager if you are unsure about how to do this.
  • During freezer cleanup and maintenance, switch to a portable freezer if any are available in your building. For McIntyre Medical, use the freezer request form. For other buildings, contact your building director to ask about borrowing a freezer.
  • See more cold storage maintenance tips here: .

• Set up a in your refrigerator or freezer to reduce the time spent searching for samples while the door is open. Discard unnecessary samples.

• Room-temperature and dry-DNA storage are alternatives to freezing samples. See an example of green bio-banking at McGill.

• Share facilities with other labs. Shared cold rooms and appliances offers many benefits, including better energy performance, backup emergency power, heat recovery, and more efficient use of space.

• Take the to implement all of the above actions as a team project while competing with other labs around the world.

Lab equipment

• Determine with others in your lab which equipment should be turned off when not in use. Label these devices to remind users. For example, electricity-powered ovens, incubators, and microscopes should not be left idling.

• Identify and label equipment that needs time to warm up, so that users remember to turn this equipment on in the morning and turn it off at the end of the day.

• Identify and label equipment that must be kept on at all times and determine whether placing these devices in stand-by mode is an option to conserve energy.

• Install outlet timers and power strips to shut off power when equipment is not in use.

• Repair and maintain all equipment to ensure safety and efficiency.

Other actions

• Turn off lights at the end of the day.

• Install motion-sensitive ceiling lights. Contact the Facilities Call Centre for more information.

• Turn off computers or put them to sleep at the end of the day.

Water conservation

McGill鈥檚 water supply is extracted from the Saint Laurent, the second longest river in North America, and an ecosystem shared by 45 million people, lucrative industries, and vulnerable plants and animals. Labs use a large proportion of the University鈥檚 water and are a potential source of pollutants in the wastewater that returns to the Saint Laurent. Here are some lab practices that reduce water wastage and pollution.

Steps to get you started:

• Contact the Facilities Call Centre (FCC) promptly to repair any leaks in faucets or from equipment and lab apparatus to prevent damage and avoid wasting water.

• Close taps when not in use.

• Install on faucets. This can reduce water flow by 60%. Talk to about installation.

• Use the appropriate water purity level for the job. See this about water types.

• Consolidate items and maximise the loads for dishwashers, autoclaves, and cage washers. Don鈥檛 run the equipment half empty or with just one item. Consider using an to monitor autoclave cycles, help optimize future cycles, and create a paper trail for maintenance and repair activities.

• Ensure that soaps and detergents used in the lab do not contain microbeads, triclosan, phosphates, or any other known polluting agent.

• Ensure that your lab uses waterless vacuum pumps and not water vacuum aspirators.

• Carefully monitor experiments requiring running water (such as condensing), and equipment requiring open water feeds, like water purification units, dishwashers, and autoclaves. Ensure inlets and outlets are secured and that any accidental release leads to a well-drained sink.

To go further, review the prepared by the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories.

Procurement and asset management

51吃瓜网laboratories spend millions of dollars each year on consumable goods, hiring specialty services, and acquiring equipment. With this spending comes the responsibility to consider the social and environmental impacts of a lab鈥檚 supply chain. Each acquisition represents an opportunity to reduce or limit resource and energy consumption, limit pollution or greenhouse gas emissions, and support economic development. Apply the 4-R hierarchy (rethink, reduce, reuse, recycle) before any purchase and apply lifecycle thinking when selecting research equipment or laboratory supplies.

Steps to get you started:

Purchases

• Develop an. Be sure to check your inventory before purchasing new equipment and supplies.

• Adopt a 鈥渇irst in, first out鈥� system so that older supplies are used first and there is less waste.

• Determine if the item can be borrowed from or shared with another lab. McGill鈥檚 MyLab system has a 鈥渟hare chemical鈥� function.

• McGill鈥檚 Procurement Services听includes sustainability requirements in contracts with suppliers. However, before any purchase you may still ask yourself these key questions:

  • Who makes this item? Where does it come from? How reputable is the supplier?
  • How long will this last? Can it be repaired or upgraded in the future?
  • How much energy does this model consume in comparison to other models?
  • Can I find a model with less toxic components or contents?

• Use credible certifications and eco-labels such as and the to inform your purchases.

• See the comprehensive guidance on including social, environmental, and climate-related considerations as part of spending decisions.

• Participate in Procurement Services trainings and workshops.

Asset Management

• Support Procurement Service鈥檚 tracking and tagging to ensure compliance with granting agency requirements and governmental regulations.

• For all research and IT equipment follow the process for managing used and end-of-life assets.

• Respect University guidelines or directives concerning the acquisition, installation, and use of regulated assets (lasers and drones) as well as fume-emitting equipment (3D printers).

Green Chemistry

Many of the traditional chemicals used in scientific research negatively impact human health and the environment during their production, use, or disposal. Green chemistry entails designing chemicals, products, and processes that are less hazardous and more sustainable throughout their entire lifecycle.

Steps to get you started:

• When developing experiments, consider the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry.

• Avoid using damaging chemicals when greener alternatives are available for the intended use. Common examples are:

  • Sybr-safe instead of ethidium bromide
  • Non-halogenated instead of halogenated solvents
  • Alcohol-based thermometers instead of mercury thermometers
  • Scintillation fluids included in the HWM approved list

• Stay informed about integrating green chemistry in your lab by checking out Beyond Benign.

12 Principles of Green Chemistry

1. Prevent waste. Design chemical syntheses to prevent waste. Leave no waste to treat or clean up.

2. Maximize atom economy. Design syntheses so that the final product contains the maximum proportion of the starting materials. Waste few or no atoms.

3. Design less hazardous chemical syntheses. Design syntheses to use and generate substances with little or no toxicity to either humans or the environment.

4. Design safer chemicals and products. Design chemical products that are fully effective yet have little or no toxicity.

5. Use safer solvents and reaction conditions. Avoid using solvents, separation agents, or other auxiliary chemicals. If you must use these chemicals, use safer ones.

6. Increase energy efficiency. Run chemical reactions at room temperature and pressure whenever possible.

7. Use renewable feedstocks. A raw material or feedstock should be renewable rather than depleting whenever technically and economically practicable. The source of renewable feedstocks is often agricultural products or the wastes of other processes; the source of depletable feedstocks is often fossil fuels (petroleum, natural gas, or coal) or mining operations.

8. Avoid chemical derivatives. Avoid using blocking or protecting groups or any temporary modifications if possible. Derivatives use additional reagents and generate waste.

9. Use catalysts, not stoichiometric reagents. Minimize waste by using catalytic reactions. Catalysts are effective in small amounts and can carry out a single reaction many times. They are preferable to stoichiometric reagents, which are used in excess and carry out a reaction only once.

10. Design chemicals and products to degrade after use. Design chemical products to break down to innocuous substances after use so that they do not accumulate in the environment.

11. Analyze in real time to prevent pollution. Include in-process, real-time monitoring and control during syntheses to minimize or eliminate the formation of by-products.

12. Minimize the potential for accidents. Design chemicals and their physical forms (solid, liquid, or gas) to minimize the potential for chemical accidents, including explosions, fires, and releases to the environment.

Source:

Animal research

Animal care facilities support many research programs, particularly in medicine, health, environmental and agricultural sciences. Caring for research animals requires intensive operations, such as cage washing, ventilation, lighting, and aquarium maintenance, which use large amounts of energy, water and space. Here are some ways to reduce the harmful environmental impacts of an animal care facility, maintain a high level of lab efficiency, and support the health and safety of the animals and the people who work with them.

Even if your lab does not use animal models, you can explore ways of in your activities where possible.

Steps to get you started:

• Be sure to follow McGill鈥檚 Standard Operating Procedures for Animal Care.

• Follow the 鈥淭hree Rs鈥� of Animal Research -. Ensure that animals are used in research only when there is no suitable alternative. Use the fewest animals required for the research purpose.

• Use individually vented cages (IVCs) instead of a static rodent cage. for the animals up to two weeks before cleaning.

• Unused or expired food that is not contaminated with animal or biomedical waste can be added to the compost stream. Reduce food waste by calibrating the amount of food provided to the animals to the frequency of cage changes or to the amount that can be consumed before in the food spoils. If cages are changed weekly, then no more than one week of food should be provided at a time.

• Use pH neutral cleaners in your animal facilities. This allows cleaning effluent to be washed down the drain without the need for a neutralizer and or additional treatment before release from 51吃瓜网buildings.

• Replace equipment at the end of its life with models that use less chemicals, water, and electricity. For example, use cage and rack washers with a counter-current flow system that re-uses the final rinse water from one washing cycle for the early rinse of the next washing cycle.

• Recycle and/or reuse cages.

Travel and fieldwork

Travel and commuting activities at 51吃瓜网are responsible for about a quarter of the University's greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing emissions from travel 鈥� especially air travel 鈥� and commuting to research sites is essential for achieving the University鈥檚 long-term target of reaching carbon neutrality by 2040.

You can reduce the carbon footprint of your research by:

• Following the sustainable travel hierarchy in McGill鈥檚 Sustainable Travel Guide.

  Posting information in your lab about alternative transport options, such as biking, walking, carpooling, ridesharing, and public transit.

  Following the in your fieldwork.

  Using remote conferencing to meet with other researchers when possible.