Cutting your carbon footprint

Here we provide some top tips for best practice to reduce your carbon footprint in and out of the lab and ensure sustainability is prioritised!

 

 

Ways to be more sustainable outside of the lab

T‌hese tips are for outwith the lab - be it in the office or on your way to work, small changes can make a big difference!

Computers and monitors

If you NEED to keep active work on your computer we would recommend using the hibernate function instead of standby as the computer will save all your active work onto the hard drive but will not use any power when switched off.

Turn your monitor off at the end of the day

Printing and electronic lab notebooks

We live in a digital world – try viewing papers on your computer or tablet instead of printing them off.

Similarly, get on board with a digital lab-book – OneNote has many features, which make it ideal to use as a lab-book, and it is already available to you through your university account. We have put together a seminar about how you can begin using a OneNote labbook. Contact us for slides.

Bring your own lunch

It may sound trivial but one of the main ways in which you can reduce your carbon footprint is by preparing your own lunch and transporting it in re-usable containers.

Cutting out cheese and meat as ingredients also goes a long way to reducing carbon footprint.

Change your commute

 

This graph, taken from Government data, shows how much you can cut your carbon emissions by using public transport or changing to commuting by bike or foot. If these options are not feasible, try carpooling!

The graph displays the carbon equivalent it takes to transport 1 person 1 kilometre.

See the GUEST website for more useful links on transport.

 

BYOB

Single use plastic bottles and cutlery have a huge carbon footprint. Instead of buying bottles of water or juice, bring your own reusable water bottle. If you fancy something different, go for something in a can. Similarly, have a work set of cutlery so you are never caught short.

Single use coffee cups are not recyclable and 3 billion go to landfill every year in the UK – not only does buying a reusable coffee cup save the environment, it can save you money too with many vendors offering discounts when you bring your own cup.

While we are trying to eradicate single-use cups from being used in our institute events, best practice is to bring your own reusable cup to all events.