Sustainable laboratories: Reducing energy

Chemistry is an inherently energy-intensive discipline. Power underpins every aspect of practical work, from heating and cooling to the carbon footprint embedded in reagents and consumables. Identifying the greenest solution often involves many different considerations and unsurprisingly, many lab users struggle to know how to tackle their energy consumption. ‘There are lots of offhand conversations between researchers along the lines of “we never know which is more sustainable, X or Y,”’ says Christina Picken, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Manchester, UK. ‘I’ve noticed that so many people have questions and are willing to do the right thing, if only they knew what the right thing was.’