Cohen laboratories – School of Earth and Environment
This was the first year our labs went for the Green Impact award. As part of the School of Earth and Environment we already had an eye to our environmental footprint but this gave a real focus to our efforts. Using the workbook as a guide we looked around the labs for areas to improve and got to work: we saved energy by encouraging users to shut sashes in fume cupboard; we created system to allow reuse of plastic sample bottles; and we rethought our purchasing to reduce waste and harm to the environment. We made these and many other small changes to the way we work and through that raised the environmental awareness of our users.
Laboratory work produces a lot of waste from plastic tubes to cuvettes. Much of this we can do nothing about; however, Green Impact gave us a frame work to make changes where we could and showed us just how much we had already achieved. We will be doing it again next year, hopefully finding some new ways to reduce our laboratories impact on the planet.