At the 2015 ACS Northeast Regional Meeting at Ithaca College, the Division organized a symposium on Green Labs, sponsored by SafetyStratus, Inc. The presentations provided a variety of perspectives on the academic, operational and conceptual aspects of improving laboratory sustainability while maintaining safe laboratory conditions.
Specifically, an overview of the laboratory sustainability concerns was provided by Ralph Stuart, along with some strategies that are being used at leading campuses to address these issues. Gary Bonomo provided examples of ways that he has been able to “green” introductory chemistry teaching laboratories at Syracuse University. Brenda Petrella talked about the energy and safety challenges associated with cold storage of samples in the laboratory and steps Dartmouth College are taking to address these. Jeff Whitford talked about green business strategies at Sigma Aldrich is employing.
Three Cornell presentations then followed describing operational strategies being pursued there to address campus wide energy conservation strategies through energy conservation planning (Mark Howe); control banding of general laboratory ventilation rates in the lab (Ellen Sweet) and the community safety challenges associated with recycling solid wastes from laboratory settings (Spring Buck).
These discussions highlighted the importance of community partnerships within a campus community and with external community infrastructure to improve the financial and environmental sustainability of safe laboratories into the 21st Century.
PDF versions of the presentation materials are available here:
Supporting safe, sustainable laboratories in the 21st century. R. Stuart, ralph.stuart@keene.edu
Role of Green Chemistry in General Chemistry Laboratory. G.D. Bonomo, garybonomo@aol.com
Lab safety and sustainability meet in the freezer B. Petrella, brenda.l.petrella@dartmouth.edu
Green chemistry in practice at Sigma-Aldrich. J. Whitford, jeffrey.whitford@sial.com
Laboratory energy conservation on a mechanically diverse campus . M. Howe, mjh69@cornell.edu
A strategy with lab ventilation management to enhance sustainability E. Sweet, ems325@cornell.edu
Challenges with recycling in the laboratory. S. Buck, scb23@cornell.edu