Green Your Lab

To assist labs in reducing their resource use and improving education and engagement efforts around these themes:

• Electricity
• Lighting
• Cold storage and freezer management
• Fume hoods and ventilation
• Water
• Inventory management
• Recycling
• Waste reduction
• Hazardous waste disposal
• Green chemistry
• Travel
• Field work (leave no trace)
• Community (sharing BP’s; engaged scholarship)
• Purchasing
• Leveraging incentive/rebate programs
• Utility usage reporting (transparency)
• Autoclaves/Glass washing
• Education (integrating Green Lab practices into UCSD classrooms)

Do you turn off lights when you leave for the day, print double-sided and have your computer set to “sleep” instead of displaying a screen saver? If so, you’re on your way to becoming a certified lab! The assessment survey recognizes the good practices you have in place already and allows us to provide simple suggestions to help your laboratory become a safer, more sustainable workplace.

A lab can add this formal certification to grant applications to leverage its commitment to sustainability. And, certified labs receive several additional certification incentives.

Steps to Getting Green Labs Certified

1. Schedule a 15-minute appointment with the certification team to meet at your lab to discuss the Green Labs certification process.
2. The UC San Diego Green Labs certification team will send you the online survey assessment.
3. Once 50% of your lab’s full-time staff (anyone working 30 hours/week or more) have completed the survey, our team will calculate the results to determine the certification score.
4. Schedule a time for the UC San Diego Green Labs certification team to present the assessment results to your lab members.
5. After the certification team presents to your lab, it will make any adjustments to the lab’s certification score based on meeting notes. The team will send an email notification that includes:
   • The lab’s final certification score
   • A copy of the PowerPoint assessment presentation
   • PDF certificate
   • Photo of lab members taken during the presentation (if applicable)
   • The certified Green Labs logo to add to your email signature and/or lab website
6. Certified labs are recognized at UC San Diego's Annual Sustainability Awards ceremony.

Questions? Email greenlabs@ucsd.edu.

Laboratory Recycling Signs

• Recyclable items (PDF)
• See Chemical Container Management Requirement Guidelines for proper waste item disposal.

Recycling Programs for Lab Materials (e.g., pipette tip boxes, Styrofoam containers, etc.):

Thermo Fisher Scientific (formerly Life Technologies) Styrofoam Container Reuse Program – You can drop off your clean Styrofoam coolers next to the UC San Diego Core Bio Services receiving doors and they will return them to Thermo Fisher Scientific for reuse.

Lab Products and Equipment

• ACT Label – green lab products
• Ethidium Bromide Alternatives
• UC San Diego Core Bio Services offers high-quality biotech products and services at competitive prices for the campus research community and the San Diego biotech community. By ordering through Core Bio Services, you will reduce your purchasing environmental footprint.
• UC San Diego Surplus Sales serves as an outlet to reutilize, liquidate, recycle and dispose of excess university property. Campus department buyers and the public are welcome to view surplus property from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. weekdays at the warehouse located at 7835 Trade St. San Diego, CA. 92121 behind Ste. 100 (Northeast corner of the building). Surplus Sales also offers recycling services to campus departments for metal, electronics, CRT LCD monitors and refrigeration equipment.
• Dayton outlet timer
  • Instruction card
  • Full instructions (PDF)

Other Resources

• 12 Principles of Green Chemistry
• Freezer Chill-Up Campaign: -70 is the new -80 Information
• UC San Diego Printer Refresh Program
• Green Labs Excess Packaging Notification Form – Report excess packaging that you receive from vendors.
• Chemcycle
• UC Office of the President – Policy on Sustainable Practices

Thermo Fisher Life Technologies

Newly certified and recertified labs are eligible to receive 40% off a one-time quote/purchase of over 1,200 Thermo Fisher greener products (excludes capital equipment and custom products). Price quote valid for 30 days upon date of issue — unlimited quantities with quote. For details, email greenlabs@ucsd.edu.

Exclusive Greener Lab Equipment Promotion – For each purchase from the Thermo Fisher Scientific Green portfolio, receive a free item valued up to $1,000. Learn more

Receive a discount on a new thermal cycler when you trade in your old model. Thermo Fisher Scientific partners with charitable organizations, such as Seeding Labs, to donate instruments and consumables. Learn more about how your donation can help labs in developing countries that are set-up as emergency water testing stations for disease outbreaks.

Fisher Scientific

Get UC San Diego Green Labs Certified and Fisher Scientific will offer a one-time 40% off list price for plastic and glassware consumables.

Contact UC San Diego’s Fisher Scientific Account Manager, Colleen Daley, to receive a sample of the eco-friendly Eppendorf 25 ML conical tubes. Get details

ULT Freezer Rebate

The freezer subsidy program offers university labs a chance to save money and become more energy efficient. If you need to replace a freezer or are about to purchase a new one, we encourage your lab to purchase an energy-efficient freezer.

Facilities Management offers a $1,600 rebate to help offset the cost of ENERGY STAR® rated upright freezers with less than 30 cubic feet capacity. To find an ENERGY STAR® rated model, visit ENERGY STAR ULT (-80C) Freezers. See details (PDF), which include how to properly defrost your freezer and moving service form.