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The 12 Principles of Green Chemistry 🧪   As the chemist Paul Anastas, (one of the fathers of green chemistry) recognized that pollution prevention could not rely solely on cleaning up waste after it was created, he tried to tackle it at its source—during the chemical design phase.   Along with John Warner, Anastas codified these principles to challenge the chemical industry to prioritize environmental health from the outset.   Since it is difficult to remember them, here are 6 key messages you might want to take away:   - Waste Reduction: Focus on preventing waste rather than just managing it after it's created. This approach helps save resources and reduce pollution.   - Efficiency: Strive to maximize the use of raw materials in the final product, minimizing unnecessary steps and by-products in chemical processes.   - Safety First: Design chemicals and processes to be safe for both humans and the environment, using less hazardous materials whenever possible. - Energy Conservation: Aim to conduct reactions at lower temperatures and pressures, using catalysts to save energy and reduce environmental impact. - Renewability: Use renewable resources, such as plant-based materials, instead of non-renewable ones to create more sustainable products. - Degradability: Ensure that chemical products break down into harmless substances after use, preventing long-term environmental damage or use circular economy principles to design more sustainable processes.

A Tool for Finding Greener Chemicals? 🧪 -> The EU Ecolabel? It seems somewhat unexpected but this is why it might be interesting to you:   The EU Ecolabel is a voluntary certification scheme established in 1992 to promote products and services with reduced environmental impact throughout their lifecycle. Although the EU Ecolabel does not have the goal to label single chemicals, it certainly supports green chemistry.   Insofar as the label promotes greener products, it helps to limit the use of hazardous chemicals by encouraging manufacturers to opt for safer, more environmentally friendly alternatives.   One of the strengths of the EU Ecolabel is its focus on the entire product lifecycle!

How BP plays the sustainability game ♻ ❌ “2023 : A year of delivery” Proudly, BP states its profits for 2023, being more than 7x what they made in 2022.   That they spend +100 Million dollar in an add campaign in 2005 in order to instrumentalize the phrase of carbon footprint might have helped in retrospect.   BP is certainly leading in talking about sustainability. However, that they spend less than 5% of their investments in oil into renewable energy speaks it own language…

A single fume hood can easily consume as much energy as 7.3 Million Wh per year. However, closing them when not in use can save a lot of energy while protecting filters. But how big is the impact we can actually have?

Do you still remember the Definitions of Scope 1,2 & 3? Here might be something new 💡 Scope 1 refers to direct Emissions. These are direct GHG emissions from sources that are owned or controlled by an organization. Scope 2 measures indirect emissions.  In other words, GHG emissions associated with the purchase of electricity, steam, heat, or cooling. Scope 3 refers to emissions from the value chain.  This category includes greenhouse gas emissions that are generated by the institution's suppliers and service providers. It broadly includes all embodied emissions from sourcing materials, manufacturing, delivery, etc.

Innovation enabled us to cut the energy consumption of ultra low temperature freezer more than in half! ❄ ⚡ Nevertheless, laboratories remain energy intensive areas:

What does Net Zero mean? 🌲 Until 2022, there was no standardized definition ❌   Generally, we understand Net Zero as the goal to limit emissions and offset them through the promotion of carbon fixating projects where necessary.     In the end, the idea is to reach a certain climate goal (e.g., 1.5°C) by pushing net CO2 release to 0.   👉 It’s important to understand that the goal of Net Zero is not to reduce emissions to zero. For example, storing CO2 underground is an accepted method to reach Net Zero. Neither it aims at “metabolizing” emissions, the final goal is just to mitigate their impact.   However, it is a long way:

350 000 gloves in a single year 🧤 ❗ That is the weight of a small car At the university of McGill, it was estimated that a anatomical pathology lab used about 1,371 boxes of gloves in a single year (equivalent to approximately 350 000 gloves). We undoubtedly need gloves in our work, but we seldomly are thinking about their footprint 👇

1966: Eppendorf sold more than one million of its famous Eppedorf Tubes 🔬 Today, we have to make sure to double check which size we use!   Reducing remains king for sustainable practice.   This is also includes using smaller items when possible. 50mL -> 15mL 15mL -> 5mL 5mL -> 1.5mL 1.5mL -> PCR-Microtube   This will save plastic hand help you handle small volumes properly.   If you need each single drop of your solution, smaller sizes help as their bottoms offer less surface!