the UW Sustainability blog
The Environmental Chemistry and Hydrology Lab at UW Tacoma hosts undergraduate research projects with an emphasis on freshwater ecosystems, along with a long term Superfund project looking at metal contamination in water and organisms in local lakes. As a result of their environmental health related research, sustainability is at the forefront of the minds of the lab's researchers.
The Molecular Information Systems Lab (MISL) located on the UW Seattle campus specializes in DNA data storage and DNA computation. As a Gold Certified Green Laboratory, sustainability has always been part of the lab's operation, a mindset lab manager David Ward (pictured) credits to being a part of the environmentally conscious Seattle culture.
Since 2015 Seattle City Light has been providing rebates to departments purchasing ultra-low freezers that meet specific energy efficiency criteria. The list of approved brands and models has recently been expanded and if you are considering replacing an existing or purchasing a new ultra-low freezer, please consider purchasing one of these energy efficient models listed below.
The Rabinovitch Lab was certified as a Gold Green Laboratory in October for their amazing green strategies. The Rabinovitch Lab focuses on pathology, and puts in great efforts to make sure their daily operations are sustainable.
Update: UW Recycling and UW Sustainability have decided not to continue a pilot program to recycle nitrile lab gloves. The pilot program, which took place over the course of spring quarter of 2016 in nine labs in the Molecular Engineering and Sciences (MolES) department and Materials Science and Engineering department, reduced the proportion of lab waste that gloves made up from an average of 23% to 7%.
There are many Green Laboratories at the University of Washington who practice sustainability every day. The Green Lab Certification program was created to recognize these labs, while providing resources for labs who want to improve their practices. This spring, the Green Lab program gave awards to those certified labs which showed outstanding performance even among the select group of certified Green Labs.
Shout out to Schindler-Limnology Lab, Berg Lab, Shendure Lab, Keil Lab, and Olmstead Lab for becoming our newest certified Green Labs!
The Schindler-Limnology Lab placed at the Gold level of certification, scoring highest in the communication and education category. With about six staff and graduate students, the lab does research on water quality, fish biology, nutrient cycling, and all things inland water.
The first rebates for labs which have purchased Stirling Ultra Low Freezers rebates have arrived.
Last week, I was part of UW Sustainability's team at the first UW Safety, Sustainability, and Preparedness Expo, letting UW community members know about our Green Certification prgrams for offices and labs on campus.