Earth Sciences and Geography have become our first Schools in 2020 to achieve 100% Green Lab Certification, bringing the University closer to our goal of institutional certification across all our STEM labs.  

Our laboratories are assessed using the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF), a Green Lab Certification which helps laboratories to reduce their environmental impact, improve research quality and drive efficiency.  

100% certification in both Geography and Earth Sciences was driven by the tremendous efforts of the technical teams. They worked hard to improve lab sustainability by tackling waste and recycling, energy efficiency, and reduction of single-use plastic to name a few. In Earth Sciences, School-wide certification was achieved by eleven teams (five Bronze, four Silver and two Gold certifications) and the School of Geography earned three Silver certifications.  

Saranna Chipper-Keating, the School Safety Officer, who coordinated LEAF for both Schools, said “Our Technical teams and Lab Managers have worked hard to gain LEAF certification and we are extremely proud to be the first Schools with 100% coverage. This is the first step towards sustainable, efficient labs and we look forward to other lab users getting involved with LEAF next time”.   

Sustainable science practices are crucial for the University to meet our 2030 carbon neutrality target because our laboratories are extremely energy and resource intensive. Despite only accounting for 6% of space at the University, laboratories use ~40% of our total energy, water, and waste. 

Richard Pancost, the Head of School of Earth Sciences, commented on the success: "Those of us in the School of Earth Sciences have dedicated our careers to understanding the planet on which we live, with many of us focusing specifically on the environmental sustainability challenges we face and the solutions to them. However, many of the approaches we use in those investigations have their own large planetary footprint. We are keen to do all that is possible to address that, which is why we have universally engaged with LEAF Certification.  We could not have achieved that without the support and buy-in of all lab users, but we are particularly grateful to the technical team for leading and delivering this." 

The University of Bristol is one for firsts: we were the first university to declare a climate emergency, the first to gain Faculty-wide Green Lab Certification (Biomedical Sciences Building), and we are now aiming to be the first university in the world to gain institutional Green Lab Certification. Congratulations to Geography and Earth Sciences, and to all other laboratories that have gained certification so far this year.