Lab workers put in long hours in the search for data and answers, so when the Green Laboratory Certification program wanted to reward participants, coffee was a natural choice.
The Green Labs program has been delivering responsibly-grown and locally-roasted coffee from UW Husky Grind to all the labs that participated in the program in 2014 to recognize and thank them for the extra effort they've put into making their labs green.
Campus laboratories are an important area of concern for UW's sustainability. Labs make up just 22% of the floor area at the university, but use 65% of all campus energy. The Green Labs certification program recognizes labs which make efforts to reduce energy consumption and utilize other environmentally-conscious practices.
Since the Green Labs program launched two years ago, nearly 50 labs have received green certification. When trying to decide on something that we could give the labs to recognize their efforts, we realized that a bag of coffee would be a great gift that would be appreciated by all lab members on campus. With many of the Green Labs staff being former lab members, we know that coffee is always flowing to keep lab members working through the long hours that many research projects require. UW Husky Grind was our first choice for coffee because of it's high quality, responsible sources, and local roasting location.
As the Green Labs workers have been delivering coffee over the past few weeks, we have come to realize that labs are very happy to receive their free coffee and take a photo for our social media. Labs that are certified have been happy to share their success to recruit more labs. Labs that are not certified have been very responsive to the coffee deliveries, many of them requesting information on what they need to do to get certified in the future.
If you want to get your lab Green certified, see sustainability.uw.edu/green-laboratory or contact the program at greenlab@uw.edu.
To see photos of some of the labs who received coffee deliveries, click here.