Sustainability is an important aspect of working within our labs and is becoming increasingly important for research funding. The Climate Action team are conducting a survey on sustainability within labs. This will help shape how, in the future, support can be developed for colleagues and students to enable sustainability to embedded in lab working. We would really appreciate it if you could take the time to complete the survey, it should take less then 10 minutes. The survey will close on Friday 12th April. Please share the survey with anyone in your team or across the University who work within labs of any type.
The importance of lab sustainability
Laboratories provide a vital teaching space and have produced some of Bath’s most important and prestigious research. They are also energy- and resource-intensive spaces, using around four-times the amount of energy as an equivalent size office space and responsible for around a third of all energy usage at Bath.
The University’s Climate Action Framework is a comprehensive commitment responding to the climate emergency that includes identifying and supporting innovative approaches to embed sustainability into research.
Considering and reducing the environmental impact of conducting research is increasingly recognised as a critical issue and demanded by funders, such as through the UKRI’s Environmental Sustainability Strategy and Concordat, and Wellcome Trust’s Guidelines on Good Environmental Practice.
Climate Action surveys have demonstrated that there is widespread support from colleagues and students for sustainable practices. To date, progress in labs has been supported through the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF). The results from this survey will help develop plans for support to enable colleagues and students to further embed sustainability and collaboratively drive change.