The Pitt Green Spotlight is a monthly series highlighting Pitt’s Green Offices & Labs! Each post highlights Pitt Green Offices and/or Labs, sharing their experiences implementing sustainable practices, tips and tricks, lessons learned, and opportunities for more sustainable work at Pitt.
We hope these Pitt Green Offices & Labs will inspire you to try out new sustainable practices in your own workspace! Want to be included in our next highlight? Contact us.
Pitt Green Lab Spotlight:
Carvunis Lab of Computational and Systems Biology, School of Medicine, BST3
Pitt Green Lab Lead: Nelson Castilho Coelho
Green Lab since September 2021
Led by the efforts of 2023 Pitt Sustainability Award recipient and Senior Research Specialist Nelson Castilho Coelho, the Carvunis Lab in Computational and Systems Biology has established a wide array of sustainable practices.
Lab plastics are a big concern, and the Carvunis Lab has minimized plastic waste in a variety of ways. Nearly all plastic bottles in the lab have been replaced with glass and are sterilized using a shared autoclave.
After learning a cleaning tip from a lab colleague, the lab switched to washing and reusing some would-be single use plastics, such as the specialty plastic sampling dish pictured here, saving the lab both money and plastic waste.
The lab also avoids shipping waste by ordering from the Dietrich Scientific Stockroom, and consolidating orders wherever possible.
The Carvunis Lab has participated in Fischer Scientific’s Pipette Tip Box Recycling program since 2021, which diverts some of the lab’s bulkiest waste from the landfill. In 2021 and 2022, the lab already recycled 25 full boxes.
When it comes to saving energy, the lab makes the most of energy intensive equipment by running devices at maximum capacity rather than on smaller scale operations, and through the sharing of equipment such as an autoclave and Ultra Low Temperature (ULT) freezer with labs on their floor. The lab worked with the department to invest in a spare ULT for emergencies, as well as for regular deicing and cleaning of the freezer to maintain efficiency.
What sparked you to start looking for ways to make your lab operate more sustainably?
Coelho: “Our lab operates with the help of automated equipment to perform high throughput experiments, which uses a lot of single use consumables. Once I started working with such equipment, I knew I had to find the best practices to try to reduce the amount of plastic waste and recycle as much as possible. After that I’ve been searching and continuously implementing ways to get our lab more and more sustainable.”
What practice would you recommend other labs try out, especially those who are just beginning?
Coelho: “My major recommendations for other labs, if they are not doing it yet, are:
- Make yearly inventories and use that info in combination with ongoing projects to place big orders in the beginning of the year. This way you can save money on extra shipping and handling fees and have less packaging waste.
- Join recycling programs and make sure you get your tip boxes sent for recycling.
- Switch from single-use plastic to glassware when possible.
- Plan routine lab tasks in ways that can reduce energy and use of single use consumables.
- Make sure to frequently clean refrigerator/freezer filters and coils”
Thanks to Nelson and the Carvunis Lab for sharing their sustainable practices!