AU Green guide: Sustainable laboratories

Before any work process involving chemicals can begin, you should make sure you have a plan for carrying out the work that ensures it can be performed in a way that protects everyone’s health and safety. You must write a lab protocol, and if there are hazardous chemicals involved, you must also carry out a chemical risk assessment for the entire process. Carrying out a chemical risk assessment will draw your attention to the dangerous processes involved in the experiment, in other words the steps in an experiment where you need to protect yourself and other people in the lab from exposure.

To familiarise yourself with the properties of a specific chemical,including environmental hazards, you should consult the safety data sheet.

 

One of the first things you should investigate is whether there’s an alternative chemical that’s less hazardous or more green. Chemical manufacturing is energy and carbon-intensive, but we can’t do without chemicals: they are also the building blocks of the products that are necessary for a circular, climate-neutral economy.
Chemical manufacturers are constantly optimizing their processes to produce alternatives, and can also offer ‘green chemicals’.

When you’re searching for information from manufacturers/suppliers, you can search under ‘green chemistry’ or ‘sustainability’ to find out what ‘green’ chemicals they offer.

Green chemicals are produced on the basis of the ‘12 principles of green chemistry’ developed by Paul T. Anastas and John C. Warner in 1991. Some of the main principles are:

• Waste prevention
• Less Hazardous Chemical Syntheses
• Use of renewable feedstocks
• Design for degradation (no persistence)

Examples of greener chemical alternatives

Chemical:	Substitute:	Explanation:
Dichlormethane (DCM)	2-Methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MeTHF) VWR® GREEN SOLVENTS	2-MeTHF is derived from natural raw materials like maize and sugar.
Tetrahydrofuran (THF)	2-Methyltetrahydrofuran (2-MeTHF) VWR® GREEN SOLVENTS	2-MeTHF is derived from natural raw materials like maize and sugar.
Diethyl ether	Cyclopentyl methyl ether (CPME) VWR® GREEN SOLVENTS	CPME can be synthesised from biomass, low formation of peroxides - more stable.
Glycerol	Bio-based glycerol Supelco®	Bio-based glycerol is derived from rape seed and is 100% biodegradable.
Ethanol	Bio-based ethanol Supelco®	Bio-based ethanol is derived from natural raw materials like maize and sugar. It’s production is safer for the environment.
Ethyl acetate	Ethyl(-)-L-Lactate Supelco®	Ethyl(-)-L-Lactate is less toxic and is 100% biodegradable.
Acetone	Ethyl(-)-L-Lactate Supelco®	Ethyl(-)-L-Lactate is less toxic and is 100% biodegradable.
Acetic acid	Bio-based acetic acid Supelco®	Bio-based acetic acid is derived from by-products and residual products from the processing of regional wood and furniture.
DMA, DMF and NMP	1-Butylpyrrolidin-2-one Supelco®	1-Butylpyrrolidin-2-one is not subject to REACH requirements and has an inherent biodegradability.
NA purification kit	TaqMan miRNA ABC purification kit Thermo Fischer	Traditional RNA extraction involves mercaptoethanol, phenol, chloroform and/or TRIzol, as well as producing quite a bit of plastic waste. TaqMan miRNA is a green kit that does not use dangerous chemicals and produces less plastic waste.
Ethidium bromide	SYBR® Green, SYBR® Red, SYBR® Safe, SYBR® Gold and similar	Ethidium bromide is a carcinogen, unlike the alternatives. You can avoid using a fume hood if you use non-hazardous chemicals, as long as no other hazardous chemicals are involved in the process.

 

Seven steps to help you find good substitutes

Finding substitutes can be a long, difficult process. For example, standardised methods, descriptions in articles, etc. can make it difficult to use an alternative chemical.

Here are seven steps to help you find good substitutes:

1	Overview of chemicals and needs
2	Make a plan
3	Search for less hazardous chemicals
4	Compare and assess
5	Test
6	Implementation and optimisation
7	Communication

It is important that you buy chemicals from the companies with which AU has entered into a purchasing agreement, as the suppliers have committed themselves to specific climate and sustainability-related requirements.

Only buy the quantity of chemicals you will be using. Even though it may be cheaper to buy a larger quantity, this may ultimately turn out to be more expensive financially and environmentally, as the chemical may just end up sitting on the shelf and being disposed as chemical waste after few years.

Buying a pre-mixed solution rather than buying a hazardous chemical in a large quantity can be safer and greener. For example, it’s a good idea to buy a 0.1 M sodium azide solution instead of buying 100 grams of sodium-azide and mixing the solution yourself.

Chemicals at AU are registered in the chemical database Kiros. In this database, you can search for a chemical and then ask the group(s) within your own department that have the chemical registered in Kiros to borrow or use the chemical for a small experiment rather than purchasing a new container.

You can only borrow/lend chemicals within your own department or where an agreement has been made. We don’t have the staff to handle lending and delivery to everyone – please consider that when you borrow chemicals. 

When you search for a chemical, the registered groups can be seen under ‘Resources’. You can read more in the quick guide to Kiros, which you will find under ‘Guidances’ at www.kiros.dk – you log on with your AU login.  

Chemicals must be stored under extraction, which requires a lot of energy. We recommend that you schedule an annual cleanout of your chemical storage cabinets to get rid of any unneeded chemicals. Many chemicals have a five-year shelf life, though some may have shorter shelf lives.

Fume hoods are a safety essential when you’re working with hazardous or toxic substances. But they also consume a lot of energy. It’s possible to reduce fume hood energy consumption without compromising the air quality in our labs.    

• Energy consumption will depend on the sash opening. You can save energy by opening the sash as little as possible. This is also an important safety measure. It’s important to close the sash completely whenever you leave the fume hood. 
• Chemicals/samples that must be stored well-ventilated should be stored in a ventilated chemical cabinet, which consumes less energy compared to point extraction or fume hoods. 
• Always turn off/shut point extraction when not in use unless it’s the main ventilation system in the room. 

If you have any questions about energy-efficient usage of fume hoods, you can ask your lab manager or building services division. 

If you come across fume hoods that don’t have automatic sash lowering installed, you can contact your lab manager or your local building services division to discuss solutions. Note that it isn’t possible to install automatic sash lowering on all fume hoods.

Standby electricity consumption accounts for a significant amount of AU’s total electricity consumption. So don’t leave equipment running on standby unless it’s really necessary.

• Get into the habit of turning off equipment that’s not in use.
• Electrically heated equipment is particularly energy-intensive. If you don’t turn off equipment of this kind because it takes too long to warm it up, consider using a timer.
• Help each other put a routine in place: it should be easy and simple to identify both equipment that should be turned off when you leave it, or at the end of the day and equipment that should never be turned off. For example, you could use a system of green, yellow and red stickers and make sure this is part of the introduction to the lab.  

• Set the freezer at -70° C instead of -80°. This will reduce energy consumption by up to 30%.
• Regular defrosting will also help to keep energy consumption down, as well as making sure that samples are only stored when necessary. Consider whether there might be freezers/fridges that are used so little that they can be turned off.

• Increase the temperature of process cooling water – preferably to room temperature if possible. This will reduce the transmission loss during cooling lines.

• Fill these machines up completely: they use virtually the same amount of power regardless of how full they are.

• Make energy efficiency a priority when purchasing new equipment, and include quick start-up and automatic sleep/power save mode in your specifications.
• Avoid equipment that requires unnecessary use of disposable items (glass vs. plastic). 
• Avoid equipment that requires frequent on-site maintenance. Investigate whether the supplier offers efficient ‘remote maintenance’. 

It’s important that you use AU’s procurement agreement with suppliers when purchasing gases in order to minimise environmental impact. These suppliers have committed themselves to climate and sustainability, and work to minimise climate impact throughout the life cycle of the gases they supply in order to improve sustainability. These suppliers have taken a number of steps, including using sustainable energy in gas manufacturing and green fuel/environmental compensation during transportation.

When buying gases, only buy the amount you need.

You can reduce environmental impact by optimising the settings on your apparatus, for example by

• making sure gas flow is set to the lowest possible flow
• if available, using a gas-saving mode while operating the apparatus
• if possible, switching the apparatus/instruments to standby or switching it off when not in use, in order to reduce/stop gas consumption

For apparatus/instruments that use a lot of a gas (for example nitrogen), consider using a gas generator so you avoid ordering, delivery and handling of gas cylinders.

 

If facilities permit, a centralised gas supply system can be installed in the labs (particularly relevant if there are plans to renovate the buildings). When multiple apparatus/instruments are connected to the same cylinder, the number of cylinders needed is reduced. This also makes it safer for all the lab’s users, because the cylinders are not located inside the lab itself.

Minimise the number of gas orders/deliveries of if possible by establishing a gas cylinder storage area if space allows.  

• Remember that gasses must be stored in a safe manner, and that rules for the maximum number of gas cylinders must be complied with.
• There are rules for storing different types of gas as well as the amount of gas that may be stored in a specific gas storage area due to the chemical properties of the gases, which may be toxic, oxidisers, fire hazards or explosives.

Always contact a occupational health and safety representative from AU if you have any questions or are thinking about introducing major changes/initiatives.

Note: At the end of 2024/beginning of 2025, a new waste management system will be implemented at AU. This page will be updated with information about the fractions in which waste from laboratories must be sorted.

It’s important that you follow the guidelines for sorting hazardous waste, which protect your safety and the environment.   

• When handling hazardous waste, such as chemicals or healthcare risk, GMO and radioactive waste, you must follow the guidelines and rules in effect at your department – including developing a waste management plan. If you are in doubt about how to handle and collect  hazardous waste, please contact the department's waste manager(s), which you were introduced to in connection with training/instruction in laboratory work. 
• Only make the quantity you need when preparing reagents, solutions, etc., so you avoid having to dispose of large amounts of unused chemicals as chemical waste.    
• Empty glass bottles that contained hazardous chemicals (particularly organic solvents)must NOT be steam-heated. Instead, empty the bottle completely, rinsing it if desired, put the lid on it and dispose of it as chemical glass waste.   
• Labs don’t only generate toxic waste – they also generate large amounts of ordinary waste that must be sorted into the fractions (types of waste) your department has.  

 

It’s important that you don’t dispose of ordinary waste as hazardous waste, because this is an unnecessary burden on the environment. Hazardous waste must be processed manually, and there are stricter requirements for packaging and longer transport. This makes it more expensive to process.

By sorting your waste correctly, you can make a difference for the environment and save your department money. See the table below for details:

Ordinary waste vs. hazardous waste	Processing price per kg. (1 Oct. 2022)	Environmental impact of transport
Ordinary residual waste (Small combustible waste)	DKK 0.54 *	Transport to the local incineration facility
Healthcare risk waste	DKK 2.20 *	Transport to Nørre Alslev-Falster
Chemical waste H2 solid	DKK 3.05 kg *	Transport to Nyborg

*In addition, there are costs for handling packaging, which are higher in the case of hazardous waste than in ordinary waste, as well as the cost of transportation to the treatment plant.