According to the United Nations, over 400 million tonnes of plastic are produced each year. Out of that number, life science labs are responsible for about five million tonnes of plastic, or around 1.8% of the yearly plastic produced.
Unfortunately, the implication paints a startling picture of the future. However, plastic has been the industry-wide standard because it reduces the possibility of cross-contamination, standardizes measurements, and reduces variables. In short, it’s easy.
But just because something’s easy does not mean that it improves the long-term functionality of your lab. Automating your lab can give you a clearer picture of how many consumables your operation actually uses. This can then help you find opportunities to introduce more sustainable practices in your day-to-day operation.
Making your lab greener benefits the planet, revitalizes your workplace’s sense of innovation, and reduces lab expenses. If you’re feeling daunted by how to make your lab more sustainable, we’ve compiled some resources and tips to help you get started.
Why Sustainability Matters in Laboratory Operations
Environmental groups, governmental regulators, and the wider scientific community are increasingly demanding greener, more efficient solutions. A study conducted by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Department of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Management found that research labs consume five to ten times the amount of energy used by an equivalently sized office or commercial space.
It’s no secret why—traditional labs have many moving parts that require a tremendous amount of energy to operate. Equipment like ultra-low freezers, spectrometers, electron microscopes, computers with high processing power requirements, and other machines are demanding on a power grid.
The same machines that help conduct life-saving research also jeopardize the ability to conduct similar research in the future. This isn’t a call to get rid of your equipment but rather to reimagine how to make your everyday machines operate more sustainably. For instance, raising your ultra-low freezer temperatures from -80°C to -70°C can cut down on energy consumption by thirty to forty percent.
This simple 10°C difference can also save on overhead, allowing you and your team to allocate funding more meaningfully.
How to Boost Laboratory Sustainability
Organizations such as Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) and My Green Lab Certification offer lab frameworks on making sustainability a practice, not just an idea. Joining these organizations also provides guidance and support from the wider scientific community. Some actions you can take while exploring accreditation options are:
- Reducing energy consumption with efficient equipment.
- Limiting plastic usage by switching to reusable alternatives.
- Implementing recycling programs for lab waste.
- Reducing water usage in sterilization processes.
LEAF — LEAF is an international accreditation created to help publicly funded institutions reduce carbon emissions. It does this by creating personalized resources for LEAF members. Learn more about LEAF.
My Green Lab Certification — My Green Lab Certification helps public and commercial institutions reach their actionable sustainability goals. The United Nations Race to Zero campaign recognizes this program.
How Automation Can Increase Sustainability in Your Lab
Automation allows you to control the D-M-T-A (Design-Make-Test-Analyze) cycle more. This makes your lab greener by reducing waste, cutting energy consumption, and lowering your lab’s carbon footprint. Automated machines, like pipette cleaners and robotics, achieve this by cutting down on wasted consumables and reducing the risk of human errors.
Additionally, automation software such as Green Button Go (GBG) can be synced with your lab’s machines to give you real-time equipment performance metrics.
Mobile Robots
The advent of mobile robots may seem like a daydream from the future, but they’re here presently helping researchers with the more banal aspects of processing specimens. Mobile robots can alleviate repetitive motions such as hand and wrist strain from pipetting and sample preparation, stiffness in muscles from standing for hours on end, and strains from bending down and standing on tiptoes to store samples.
No matter how deft you are with these tasks, they can wear on the joints. Now, more hardware, such as track systems, conveyor belts, and stationary collaborative robotic arms, is catching up to provide aid for humans’ physical restraints. Additionally, mobile robots, such as a precise robotic arm, seamlessly integrate with the GBG automation platform by coordinating your robots so they adhere to your workflows.
Mobile robots also offer your lab:
Scalability — Want to use a specific instrument, but it’s on the other side of your building? A robot can transport samples and maintain optimal conditions. They can also be programmed to perform multiple tasks or sequestered to one specific task.
Flexibility — You can always reconfigure a robot to your lab’s ever-changing workflows so your lab can continue operating efficiently without rearranging other modalities.
Safety — Robots are now equipped with their own sensors to transport delicate samples while pausing for researchers. This reduces the chance of researchers being exposed to hazardous biomaterials.
Software integration — GBG can coordinate traffic to handle your workflow seamlessly and is hardware-agnostic, meaning you can have multiple robots under the same GBG umbrella.
Review mobile robotics solutions
Autonomous Preparation
You can also integrate GBG automation software to coordinate your lab’s robots to perform:
- Decapping
- Vortexing
- Labware shuffling.
- Liquid handling.
- And other processes.
This is what Carleen Klumpp-Thomas, MS at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS), did when designing her lab’s workflows. Preparing hundreds of samples can take hours, inviting human error and frustration. Calibrating a robot to execute the desired task with exact specifications ensures that data will be consistent and reliable.
This also ensures your lab will have fewer artifacts in samples, ensuring a smaller window of error. While it’s fundamental to know how to execute these tasks, automating them can save time to perform the more rewarding aspects of your job and prevent burnout for your team.
Autonomous Cleaning
GBG can also schedule robots to transport pipettes to pipette tip washers, glassware to automated glassware washers, and UV bots to clean surfaces.
A real-life example of designing a greener, cost-effective lab was when Klumpp-Thomas, MS, decided to validate whether her lab’s reused pipette tips were comparable to new pipette tips. What she found was that there was no significant difference between the new and cleaned pipette tips, and both tips delivered the equivalent biomarkers.
At the time of the webinar, Klumpp-Thomas’s team had been using the same pipette tips for over three years. According to a study by the Georgia Institute of Technology, one lab can discard over 36,000 pipettes in a year. With a case of tips costing anywhere from $100 to $2000, the savings gained from reusing pipettes is exponential.
The Future of Sustainable Science Through Automation
The long-term advantages of automated processes far outweigh the initial cost. Robotics can relieve researchers of hard-on-the-joints tasks associated with sample preparation. By carrying out repetitive tasks, robotics also reduces room for error, saving on costs. Robotics can also be integrated into your workflow and programmed to conduct a variety of tasks, preventing cross-contamination and ensuring repeatability.
To further improve your resource-use metrics, cleaning systems that allow you to use always-in-demand consumables like pipettes save on costs and give you more time to focus on analyzing data and making insights rather than spending time doing inventory. In short, automating your lab’s workflows lets you extend the life of your existing machines, cuts down on single-use plastic waste, and instills a spirit of innovation in the workplace. By making your lab greener, you also make it leaner and smarter.
If you’re curious about how you could integrate automation solutions into your lab, visit our Contact Us page. An automation expert will work with you to plan a customized solution for your operation.
FAQS
What is a sustainable lab?
A sustainable lab prioritizes efficiency, reduces waste, and slashes its carbon footprint by using modern methods such as automation.
What tools help labs measure sustainability?
Organizations such as LEAF and My Green Lab Certification offer insights into how to meet their accreditation guidelines. GBG can also deliver real-time insights into materials and processes so you can conduct an internal audit to make your operation greener.H3: What are the key components of a sustainable laboratory?
Innovation — Always look for a new, greener approach when conducting daily tasks.
Invigoration — Find opportunities to swap out single-use materials for reusable or recyclable materials when possible.
Transparency — Knowing where and how everything is made gives you more insight into your workflow and empowers you to make more informed decisions.
Can automation reduce plastic waste in labs?
Yes. Implementing automation solutions can independently clean consumables and prepare samples, reducing the amount of waste that comes from errors.
