{"681891":{"#nid":"681891","#data":{"type":"news","title":"My Green Lab Initiative Drives Sustainable Practices in Campus Labs","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ELaboratories are central to Georgia Tech\u2019s mission of driving groundbreaking research, innovative discoveries, and life-saving technology. However, these labs are also significant consumers of resources. With nearly 900,000 square feet of campus lab space, labs use, on average, 10 times the electricity and four times the water of a typical classroom. They also produce most of the hazardous waste on campus. In 2023, Environmental Health and Safety (EH\u0026amp;S) brought the issue to the attention of the Office of Sustainability, which led the charge in 2024 to launch a My Green Lab working group and sponsored three campus labs to work toward certification, including the School of Biological Sciences Instructional Labs, the Institute for Bioengineering and Bioscience\u2019s Molecular Evolution Core Facility, and the Takayama Lab. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMy Green Lab is an international community of scientists dedicated to making laboratories more sustainable and resource-efficient. To achieve My Green Lab certification, each lab conducted an initial assessment to evaluate their current sustainability practices and identified areas of improvement, including waste, water, and electricity. Labs were encouraged to adopt measures such as defrosting and cleaning refrigerator coils, using timers for test equipment, and promoting best practices. Alicia Wood-Jones, Lab and Safety Officer for EH\u0026amp;S, was a key leader in the working group. Known for her work on the Chemical Reclamation Committee, Wood-Jones\u2019 vision and drive are instrumental in finding innovative solutions to long-standing challenges in lab decommissioning.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe thanks her colleagues, including the EH\u0026amp;S Lab and Chemical Safety Team, \u201cfor their help and vision. We believe that even small steps forward can make a big difference here at Georgia Tech. I am so appreciative to all involved. I look forward to future collaborations with lab members on campus.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EKatherine Nguyen and her team in the Takayama Lab construct multicellular models and dissect cell signaling pathways to understand disease physiology. While pursuing this research, the lab team activated measures to responsibly manage their lab resources, such as recycling in the lab, keeping centrifuges at room temperature when not needed, and consolidating orders.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cI\u2019m incredibly happy and proud to have been a part of this program and appreciate everyone\u2019s hard work to try to make Georgia Tech a more sustainable campus,\u201d she said. \u201cOur lab was the first academic lab at Georgia Tech to get certified. Sometimes, graduate students want to be greener, but don\u2019t know how to or feel like we have the power to. My Green Lab helped identify feasible options for labs to reduce their waste. Even if labs couldn\u2019t make every single change, any improvement is a positive change.\u201d \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESustainability efforts at the Molecular Evolution Core Laboratory are led by Anton Bryksin, Shweta Biliya, and Adam Fallah. The lab is pioneering Tip-Cycle, a program that sterilizes and recycles pipettes for reuse. This lab also monitors campus blackwater for diseases such as Covid-19, using thousands of pipettes in their work. Faced with resource constraints during the pandemic, these researchers developed innovative solutions to maximize resource efficiency. \u201cWe\u2019ve always wanted to make our lab practices more sustainable, but weren\u2019t sure where to start. My Green Lab gave us the tools and guidance to turn that intention into action. This certification represents the dedication of our entire team to create a more sustainable environment,\u201d said Biliya, a Georgia Tech research scientist. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe My Green Lab initiative offers an approach for transforming campus labs into more efficient spaces while producing less hazardous waste. By prioritizing sustainability in our labs, Georgia Tech can have both a global reputation for research and responsible resource management. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EVisit the Office of Sustainability for more information on \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/sustain.gatech.edu\/\u0022\u003EMy Green Lab\u003C\/a\u003E.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":"","format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EThree Georgia Tech labs are leading the charge in resource efficiency.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Three Georgia Tech labs are leading the charge in resource efficiency."}],"uid":"35028","created_gmt":"2025-04-17 21:07:36","changed_gmt":"2025-04-18 18:45:02","author":"cbrim3","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","location":"Atlanta, GA","dateline":{"date":"2025-04-17T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2025-04-17T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"676871":{"id":"676871","type":"image","title":"My Green Lab certification ceremony.","body":null,"created":"1744928254","gmt_created":"2025-04-17 22:17:34","changed":"1744931401","gmt_changed":"2025-04-17 23:10:01","alt":"Group of individuals involved in the My Green Lab certification program April 2025.","file":{"fid":"260717","name":"DSC_0088.JPG","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/04\/17\/DSC_0088.JPG","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/04\/17\/DSC_0088.JPG","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2860135,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/04\/17\/DSC_0088.JPG?itok=xbMn5Xzt"}},"676872":{"id":"676872","type":"image","title":"100_0251.JPG","body":null,"created":"1744928636","gmt_created":"2025-04-17 22:23:56","changed":"1744928636","gmt_changed":"2025-04-17 22:23:56","alt":"Photo of box for recycling lab gloves","file":{"fid":"260718","name":"100_0251.JPG","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/04\/17\/100_0251.JPG","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/04\/17\/100_0251.JPG","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":757528,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/04\/17\/100_0251.JPG?itok=ptXPEp2e"}},"676873":{"id":"676873","type":"image","title":"100_0225.JPG","body":null,"created":"1744928753","gmt_created":"2025-04-17 22:25:53","changed":"1744928753","gmt_changed":"2025-04-17 22:25:53","alt":"Photo of containers for recycling pipettes.","file":{"fid":"260719","name":"100_0225.JPG","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/04\/17\/100_0225.JPG","image_full_path":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/2025\/04\/17\/100_0225.JPG","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":3054690,"path_740":"http:\/\/hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/2025\/04\/17\/100_0225.JPG?itok=KFEQzVyY"}}},"media_ids":["676871","676872","676873"],"groups":[{"id":"64319","name":"Administration and Finance"},{"id":"383831","name":"Facilities Management"},{"id":"1214","name":"News Room"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"194481","name":"My Green Lab"},{"id":"168693","name":"campus sustainability"},{"id":"194097","name":"IS News"},{"id":"194482","name":"tip cycling"},{"id":"192081","name":"office of sustainability"},{"id":"10135","name":"environmental health and safety"},{"id":"479","name":"Green Buzz"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"},{"id":"71911","name":"Earth and Environment"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003ECathy Brim\u003Cbr\u003ECommunications Officer II\u003Cbr\u003EInstitute Communications \/ Infrastructure and Sustainability\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003Eor\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:drew.cutright@gatech.edu\u0022\u003EDrew Cutright\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr\u003EDirector of Sustainability Engagement\u003Cbr\u003EOffice of Sustainability\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":["cathy.brim@gatech.edu"],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}