Resources

• Track expiry dates to avoid unnecessary purchases.
• Ask around or use Catalyse to find out who you could borrow from
  • Open Catalyse > open the left-hand menu > “? Search and Request” > “Request Item Search” > “Advanced Search” > Under “Product name contains”, enter the name or CAS number of the product you are looking for.

• Spend time on experiment design
• Favour PP-made  PS plastic consumables where applicable¹
  • Consider referring to the →. It can be a starting point to compare the environmental impact of similar products.
• Find out more on the EPFL sustainable purchase guideline for lab consumables

1. Discuss and assess your specific need. The SV workshop can provide technical advice on a large number of equipment types. This helps homogenize equipment throughout the School, optimize maintenance, ensure the best after-sale services, reduce costs for research laboratories, as well as select more environmentally friendly equipment.
2. Explore sharing equipment with other labs, or the SV platforms
3. Opt for second-hand or refurbished The SV workshop has some second-hand devices available.
4. Have a look on the equipment exchange platform for all EPFL labs.

→ Contact the SV Workshop via ServiceNow form.

Autoclaves example:

The SV services include a glassware facility with dedicated autoclaves for sterilization. These autoclaves are frequently and carefully maintained and available for you to use. Today, they are not used at their full capacity, please avoid purchasing your own autoclaves and enjoy the glassware facility.

→ Find out more about the Sterilization procedure.

• Keep a chemical and biological inventory and track expiry dates (e.g. through SLIMS) and a proper labelling to avoid unnecessary product purchases.
• Borrow products from other labs when you only need a small quantity. Before buying a new product, check its availability in other labs through Catalyse* and contact the owner.
• Share chemical products directly through Catalyse*.
• Autoclaving is an energy intensive process that can be replaced by high temperature washing in some cases.

Special waste is managed by the SV infrastructures team, or dedicated external partners, in specific locations. You will find all the necessary information within the links below.

Consumables (including single use plastics, or medium and other products) are a major source of environmental impacts in the lab, especially during their production and disposal stages.

• Brainstorm with your colleagues about how to generate the least waste, and think about how you can reuse or recycle material. 
• Autoclave your consumables and accessories only when necessary. Autoclaving is an energy intensive process that can be replaced by high temperature washing in some cases.
  • Check your experiment design, some of your experiments might not require sterilized tips. When in doubt, ask. This is a simple everyday action which can have a great impact on reducing your environmental impact.
  • Also, most pipette tips in their boxes are already sterilized by the manufacturers at purchase, and thus do not require additional autoclaving. → Use a system in your laboratory shelves to differentiate tip boxes which were autoclaved, and those which weren’t. Example: Autoclaved tip boxes are identified with a colored tape.

Mind the bin type: 

• Sort your non-contaminated recyclable waste (aluminum, paper, glass…) in EcoPoints. Bring other non-contaminated waste to the SV or AI recycling points. Bring non-contaminated plastics to the outside containers.
• Use hazardous waste bins exclusively for contaminated waste. This serves to avoid non-contaminated waste undergoing unnecessary energy-intensive end-of-life processing. Follow SV and EPFL waste guidelines.

• The SV Workshop can support you in the installation and integration of your equipment into the SV infrastructure and guide you through the different key aspects.
• For example, they can help you connect freezers to the alarm system (where available) if they contain precious samples.
• Keep and store your equipment documentation (e.g. manual and spec sheet), so all lab members know where to find it when needed. It can be helpful for maintenance, repair, and supplier information.

• Optimize sample preservation temperatures to be as close to room temperature as possible.
  • Set freezer temperature to -20°C, and fridge temperature to 4°C, not lower.
• Increase PCR end-of-cycle temperature to 15°C, rather than 4°C overnight incubations to increase equipment lifespan.
• Optimize freezer space and turn off unused fridges. Readable sample labels and an annual fridge cleanout can help save significant amounts of energy. In addition, try to anticipate what will happen with the samples of anyone leaving the lab.
• Equipment ventilation should be free from obstruction. Always check that the ventilation grids or filters are clean.

Quoting the LEX 5.9.1, Section 3, Article 10:

1. For inventory equipment, publication of the equipment on the exchange platform, then, if necessary, redeployment to another EPFL Unit.
2. Re-sale to a non-profit making public institution.
3. Re-sale to a start-up or third party (including EPFL employee or student).
4. Donation or Disposal. Contact the SV Workshop by opening a ticket on ServiceNow.

⚠️ If your equipment is not present in your inventory, contact the SV Workshop by opening a ticket on ServiceNow.

• Check the filter’s state on your equipment, if it is obstructed or soiled, it should be cleaned.

⏰ Filters should be cleaned once per year.

Contact SV Workshop: ServiceNow form

ℹ️ The SV services include a glassware facility with dedicated autoclaves for sterilization. These autoclaves are frequently and carefully maintained and available for you to use. Today, they are not used at their full capacity, please avoid purchasing your own autoclaves and enjoy the glassware facility.

Find out more about the Sterilization procedure.

• Replace the water and clean the basin.

⏰ In line with your use, it could be once a week or once a month.

Disfunctions? Contact SV Workshop: ServiceNow form

ℹ️ Your water bath needs replacement?

Have you considered using a bath instead of a water bath? Bead baths commonly offer more effective and reduced energy consumption. Also, there is nothing to evaporate, the beads are made from a solid recyclable metal which can be upcycled into other products. (waterbaths.net)

• In the humidification tank, use deionized detergent-free water for your CO₂ incubators, instead of bi-distilled water.

• Clean and disinfect with 70% Alcohol, and use sterilization as a last resort.
• Thermo Heracell models: AutoStart – for recalibration – every 3 months. The instructions should be available on the machine or in the dedicated manual.

Questions? Contact the SV Workshop: ServiceNow form

• ULT freezers and other refrigeration equipment should be cleaned annually by an appointed team within the lab. The SV Workshop can provide replacement freezers during defrosting.¹

⏰  Once a year 

Questions? Contact the SV Workshop: ServiceNow form

Freezer Challenge 

Thousands of scientists around the world compete in the International Laboratory Freezer Challenge each year to learn how to be more energy efficient with their lab’s cold storage, improve sample accessibility, reduce risk, and save costs for their institutions. Any type of laboratory is eligible to participate. It occurs over a six-month period during which individual labs work at their own pace to implement optimal cold storage management practices. Score sheets are submitted to My Green Lab at the end of the competition. Individual laboratories and organizations are scored against their peers, and the winning labs and research institutions receive awards.

✉️ Reach out to the SV Sustainability office if you’d like to participate!

• Clean under the grid (work surface) to prevent build up and degradation of the hood.

⏰  Once a year 

Questions? Contact the SV Workshop:  ServiceNow form

Are you using the appropriate charger? Beware of using the appropriate charger for your pipette: check the voltage! The use of an incompatible power supply may damage your pipette. Also, it is often advised to charge the pipette during at least one hour. 

• Maintain and care for your IT equipment to extend its lifespan.
  • For smartphones specifically, Point Smart – like Point Vélo – offers different services to repair your phone.  
  • The SV-IT offers a variety of hardware repair and maintenance services, from data recovery to PC repair.
• Assess the needs: Do you need multiple desktops, or could you share? Screens and monitors have an important impact, use only as many as you need.
• Contact SV-IT whenever IT equipment is not in use anymore.

• Use SCITAS and RCP services for your computation needs, rather than private servers. Sharing is key to reduce our emissions! 

• The SV-IT provides a wide range of solutions and guidance.
  • Electronic Laboratory Notebooks (ELN)
  • Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS)
  • Clinical study data management

• Organize an annual data cleanout. Laboratories can host many collaborators over the years and deleting large files and duplicates, sometimes even non-identified files, can free up consequent storage space. Every 3^rd Saturday of March is Digital Cleanup Day !

To avoid unnecessary consumption of electricity, SV Sustainability provides free clocks and timers. These devices can automatically turn equipment off and on at defined times (clocks), or after a defined period (timers). They are particularly useful for laboratory water baths and some microscope bulbs, and outside the laboratory for research findings display set ups, or printers.

✉️ Contact us if you are interested!

• Keep them and use them to fill up empty space in fridges and freezers. It helps maintain thermal inertia and therefore reduces temperature fluctuation.

Depending on the types of samples handled in your lab, there might be room to turning up the setpoint long-term storage temperature without harming your sample’s integrity and significantly decreasing your energy consumption.

Some points to consider:

• The amount of energy saved by implementing any temperature adjustment will depend on the freezer model, brand, year of manufacturing, and door opening frequency.
• The more frequently you open your freezers, the higher their average temperature.   
• ⚠️ Increasing the temperature of your ULT* can result in a shorter intervention time in case of an electricity outage. The decision can be made by the unit head, who must inform the SV Workshop of the change.

Some studies have suggested turning up the ultra-low temperature freezer from -80 to -70 °C, find below some references: 

• ‘Efficient ULT freezer storage’ – Edinburgh University
•  ‘Minus 70 is the new 80’– Radboud University
• ‘Long-term protein storage’ – BMC

*ULT = Ultra-low temperature

• Lower the sash of fume hoods all the way down between each use: “Shut the sash: fume hood ventilation in laboratories” – UC Berkeley & UCLA
• Turn off culture cell hoods between each use. 

Even if SV EPFL infrastructures have a centralized ventilation system, is it good practice to lower the sash of fume hoods in case you go working in other institutions.

In the case of ULT freezers, their location has a large impact on their electricity consumption.

• Avoid placing them near a heat source
• Place them in a well-ventilated area

Electricity consumption according to ULT and room temperature:

Reference model: PCB MDF-DU702VH-PE VIP ECO (EPFL B072642), with a setpoint temperature of -80°C

There is a wide range of support services available for you in SV:

• 11 research core facilities for you to complete your research objectives.
• Support Facilities such as the SV Workshop, the Solution preparation facility, and many others. 

• Sending samples? Reuse the ice packs you kept from deliveries

The disposal of P2 waste, whether solid, sharp, or liquid, is managed by the SV-IN You will find all necessary information on their website.

For example, solutions inactivated by autoclave are still considered as special waste (Management of special waste at EPFL)

• Reduce your need in the first place by re-using, borrowing, or considering a glassware alternative.
• Incorporate the 5 R’s- Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Reform & Recycle.
• Ensure you know where to recycle non-contaminated paper, plastics and other types of packaging: Eco-Points
• Favor companies/suppliers offering take-back schemes to reduce the amount of waste generated by your labs.

The goal is to set up a take-back scheme with suppliers, with a common collection point amongst all labs which produce this type of waste. 

If you already have a functional workflow for this matter, please reach out so we might try to extend to other labs. 

• Purchase tips in bulk bags and/or stack packs.
• Re-use tip boxes as much as possible within the lab. They are made of polypropylene (PP) which is a very robust and safe type of plastic.
• Re-purpose tip boxes to organize small items in your labs or in your homes and other locations (e.g., screws, nails, sewing threads etc.)
• Optimize the workflow of the experiment and you might succeed in reducing the number of tips needed to do the work.
• Mind the autoclave. Autoclave tip boxes only when truly necessary for your experiment.

? Take part in a Plastic workshop to learn about plastics lifecycles and debate on solutions.

ℹ️ Plastic upcycling student project: Plast It Back

• Ensure to use the appropriate water type and quality for your equipment such as CO2 incubators which require distilled water (The correct water type for CO2 incubators – ThermoFisher Scientific). 
• Be aware of what you can throw in your lab’s sinks or not. From an EPFL Lab manual from 2010: “As a rule of thumb, nothing goes into the sink except for aqueous solutions containing less than 5% of organic (including acetone but not ethanol or sugar),and without heavy metal or toxic matters.”
• Where appropriate and applicable, consider adding low-flow aerators to taps to save water.
• Find ways to reuse water from single pass cooling systems.
• Report leaks immediately to the “Centre d’Alarme et d’Engagement” (CAE) by calling 34000 or 021 693 40 00 for technical assistance.

• Be aware of what you can throw in your lab’s sinks or not.