Author: Ben Gray

LEAF Award in Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Reposted from Imperial news article “LEAF Awards: Our Purple lab goes Green for Bronze!” by Jane Horrell

We are pleased to announce that our Level 1 Teaching Lab has received a Bronze LEAF Award for sustainable laboratories.

If you’ve ever visited EEE’s Level 1 Lab you’ll know it’s a huge space in constant use. A dynamic and collaborative learning environment where up to 200 students can be working on hardware experiments to support their taught modules, alongside staff and teaching assistants.

This means that power supply units, oscilloscopes, soldering irons, and computers for analysis and simulation of electronic circuits are running throughout the day, consuming a significant amount of energy. To add to the sustainability challenge, many thousands of electronic components are used over a year.

The LEAF Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework  scheme is designed to improve sustainability and efficiency in higher education teaching and research. Labs undergo self-assessment and peer review to reach Bronze, Silver or Gold standard, demonstrating the estimated financial and carbon savings their actions have achieved. Imperial estimates that 247 tonnes CO2 equivalent has been saved through the LEAF scheme across the university since the start of 2024.

Leading the challenge

Sustainability lead in the lab is Electronic Support Group Technician May Tang. May has already been active in sustainability efforts for more than two decades as a member of our Technical Services team, who have all helped towards this achievement, supported by fellow technicians Vic Boddy and Amine Halimi, Technical Services Manager Danny Harvey, Teaching Fellows Dr Ed Stott and Dr Hakan Merdan, and Ben Gray, Imperial’s Sustainability Initiatives Coordinator. May says the team is “deeply committed to environmental stewardship and promoting sustainable practices in the scientific community.”

“Embracing and integrating these practices aligns with Imperial’s broader commitment to reducing our ecological footprint. This is crucial for the longevity and ethical responsibility of scientific research.”

Practical action

To achieve the Bronze LEAF accreditation, the team has implemented a series of measures. “We’ve introduced sorting and recycling programmes for electronic components, adopted a more efficient procurement strategy to minimise waste, and optimised our energy use by reducing computer screen and oscilloscope brightness. We’ve also helped our students and staff adopt best practices, ensuring that everyone can contribute to our green goals.”

As well as taking simple steps such as using recyclable materials, and ensuring all equipment is well maintained to cut down on replacement, a notable innovation has been inspiring the students to design a recycling component sorting machine.

Future goals

Following this success, our department Stores will also now be applying for Bronze LEAF accreditation, and the Level 1 Lab team is aiming for Silver. May says: “This will involve further reducing our waste, enhancing our recycling programmes, and exploring new equipment and methods. We’d also like to collaborate with other labs to share best practice and drive collective progress toward greater sustainability.”

One of the changes they will be making in their bid for Silver is to upgrade the soldering irons. Technical Services Manager Danny Harvey explains: “On old soldering technology, the equipment stays on all the time, wasting energy. New smart soldering irons can supply just enough energy to meet the soldering task, and also turn off when not in action. This is not only safer and faster to operate, it also saves energy, and it reduces cost as the tips don’t burn out so quickly.”

Our congratulations to May and the team!

Medicine’s first Gold LEAF Award

Reposted from Imperial news article “Centre for Inflammatory Disease awarded Gold LEAF Award” by Meesha Patel

The centre in the Department of Immunology and Inflammation is the first lab in the Faculty of Medicine to receive a Gold Award.

The Centre for Inflammatory Disease (CID) Green Team leMembers of the Department of Immunology and Inflammation Green Teamd by Dr Kerry Rostron-Barrett, Laboratory Manager and Section Safety Coordinator undertook the assessment as part of Imperial College London’s commitment to a more sustainable Imperial.

Established by UCL, the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework is an accreditation scheme designed to improve sustainability within higher education teaching and research. The first Gold LEAF certificate was awarded at Imperial College London in 2021-22 and the framework allows laboratory managers from all departments to quantify their environmental and financial impact.

The CID was awarded a Silver LEAF award earlier this year but their ongoing efforts were rewarded with Gold status.  This involved increased reuse of lab materials, actions to reduce work associated travel, increased engagement with the Estates team to alter ventilation requirements in non-critical areas, more comprehensive cataloging of samples and chemicals and promoting the use of existing samples and data in favour of generating new samples.

Dr Kerry Rostron-Barrett said: “Laboratory-based research, though essential, is extremely energy and resource intensive, using three to ten times more energy per meter squared than a typical office.”

“We have implemented a number of actions which have resulted in a significant reduction in the amount of laboratory waste generated, consumption of single use plastics, water and energy – ultimately resulting in markedly reduced running costs and carbon footprint.”

Creating a more sustainable laboratory

Making a laboratory of this size and scale energy efficient and more sustainable is a challenging task. The CID laboratory occupies 547.42 m² of space at the Hammersmith Campus and conduct scientific and medical research in laboratory dishes (in vitro) and in animals (in vivo).

Contamination can be a problem in these experiments therefore single-use plastics can often be necessary. A few examples of the changes made were increasing the temperature of freezers, making recycling bins available so that non-contaminated lab plastics and single use gloves could be recycled, consolidation of consumable orders and making sure that equipment is stickered with ‘traffic light’ system stickers to highlight which equipment can or cannot be turned off at the end of each working day.

Ben Gray, Sustainability Initiatives Coordinator in Property & Major Projects said: “This Gold LEAF award for CID has demonstrated the largest carbon savings of any laboratory application across Imperial with approximately 23 tonnes of CO2 emissions and £34,000 of energy saved each year, a large contribution! All these savings in lab spaces are vital for our campuses to reach our Net Zero targets by 2040.”

“The CID team have not only made fantastic contributions to energy savings but have also shown great innovation to re-think the way they use consumables, making sizable reductions in the amount of plastic purchased in their lab and something which can be showcased to many other laboratories at Imperial.”

Professor Marina Botto, Head of Department said: “This result fills our Departmental community with pride. I am thrilled to see the CID Green Team was recognised for their outstanding commitment and efforts to improve the sustainability of our laboratories. It is inspiring to see all the changes they have implemented in the laboratory without compromising the quality of the research – it is testament of the real impact we can all make if we adapt our way of working”

Professor Matthew Pickering, Head of the CID said: “This was a transformative initiative and our Green Team led by Dr Kerry Rostron-Barrett wholeheartedly deserve the Gold status. They have shown how we can make impactful changes to sustainability through innovative changes to our laboratory practice.”

The Green Team, Centre for Inflammatory Disease

Reposted from DoII blog “In profile: The Green Team, Centre for Inflammatory Disease” by Department of Immunology and Inflammation Communications

As part of our Staff Profile series, we are celebrating the Green Team in the Centre for Inflammatory Disease. Through their hard work and efforts the team has been recently awarded a Silver LEAF award. In this profile, they tell us more about their work to achieve the award and more about life in our labs.

Introduce yourself – who are you and what do you do?

The Green Team is made up of a mixture of students, PIs, Postdocs and technical staff:

Alice Denton (Senior Lecturer), Lyndon Costa (PhD student), Kassandra (Kass) Vezyrgianni (Research Technician), Stacey McIntyre (Postdoctoral Researcher), Christina Malaktou (Postdoctoral Researcher) and is led by Kerry Rostron-Barrett (Laboratory Manager and Section Safety Coordinator).

What experience does the team have and where did the members work/study before joining the department?

Prior to joining Imperial Alice conducted Postdoctoral work at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge. Lyndon studied at the University of Exeter before joining us for his PhD studies. Christina studied at King’s College before successfully completing her PhD with us and becoming one of our Postdoctoral Researchers.

Before joining us as Research Technician, Kass completed her MRes at the University of York.  Stacey previously studied at the University of Oxford and is currently close to completing her PhD submission alongside working as one of our Postdoctoral Researchers.

And finally, prior to joining the department Kerry worked in several Postdoctoral Research positions and spent a year as a Research Scientist in industry.

Recently the labs were awarded a Silver LEAF award. What does this mean?

Laboratory-based research, though essential, is extremely energy and resource intensive, using 3-10 times more energy per meter squared than a typical office. The Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF) is a standard to improve the sustainability and efficiency of laboratory spaces.

Participating laboratories are awarded either Bronze, Silver or Gold level, depending on how many sustainability actions they take. After achieving Bronze, we were quickly able to make further changes in the labs to be upgraded to Silver.

Our Silver award recognises that we have gone beyond the minimum standard in Lab sustainability. As an entire Centre, we have implemented further additional actions which have resulted in a significant reduction in the amount of laboratory waste generated, consumption of single use plastics, water and energy – ultimately resulting in markedly reduced running costs and carbon footprint.

How did you prepare for the LEAF assessment? What was the process?

After registering our interest in the LEAF programme, we received the LEAF user guide and created an account via the online portal.

Here we completed an online workbook addressing a range of different criteria: waste, people, purchasing, equipment, IT, sample & chemical management, research quality, ventilation and water.

A few examples of some of changes we made in the labs include: increasing the temperature of our ULT freezers from -80°C to -70°C, making recycling bins available in the labs so that used non-contaminated lab plastics could be recycled instead of being disposed of as hazardous waste, developed a standard operating procedure (SOP) for plasticware washing so that single use plastics could be reused for non-sterile applications, order consolidation to reduce the number of consumable deliveries to site and traffic light stickers on equipment highlighting what can/cannot be turned off at the end of each working day.

After submitting our application, we then had an in person visit from Imperials Sustainability Initiatives Coordinator, Ben Gray, who assessed the labs based on our written application and took photographs to evidence what had been implemented.

What is the most challenging part of your role?

There is a common theme here with each one of us – and that is managing wide ranging day to day tasks simultaneously (without messing any of them up!).

On the sustainability side of things, we all agree that the most challenging aspect has been changing old habits among everyone working in the labs.  For example, it is just muscle memory for many people to throw lab plastics into the same bin they always have done, rather than recycling them.

And the most rewarding?

The most rewarding aspects range from watching teams flourish as scientists to finding the answers to the scientific questions being asked!

When it comes to being Green – when we see people recycling/turning off lights in the lab without being prompted and knowing that our collective carbon footprint is significantly reducing with the implementation of simple measures to re-use and recycle lab materials.

What are the interesting hobbies or activities the team get up to when not at work?

When the team aren’t at work, the members engage in numerous activities including pottery, mixed martial arts, yoga, video gaming, reading about mythology, playing bass guitar and hanging out with theirs or other people’s pets. Oh! And the occasional pub quiz, of course!!

And finally, what would you love people in the department to know about the team?

We love being green – which I guess helps with our participation in the LEAF, My Green Lab and, more recently, Green Impact programmes!

We’re also very friendly (honest!) come and ask us stuff! We don’t bite, just recycle!

Engineering’s first Gold LEAF Award

Reposted from Imperial news article “Chemical Engineering Teaching Lab awarded the prestigious LEAF Gold Award” by Navta Hussain

The Undergraduate Teaching Lab team has been recognised for their leadership in implementing sustainable practices in the teaching environment.

They have been awarded the first LEAF Gold award in the Faculty of Engineering at Imperial College London.

The team, Dr Umang Shah, Andrew Macey, and Dr Mohamed Maher, were commended for their exemplary sustainable lab practices.

The LEAF Gold Award

LEAF is a green initiative first developed by University College London (UCL) to improve the efficiency and sustainability of laboratories and technical workspaces.

The Gold Award is accorded to those who have successfully embedded key sustainability practices, such as reducing waste, energy consumption and demonstrating commitment to the sustainability framework.

On being conferred the award, Professor Omar Matar, Head of Department, stated: “I am extremely proud of the team for their dedication and drive!.”

Journey to sustainable teaching

The Chemical Engineering undergraduate teaching lab team have been at the forefront of embedding sustainability practices to transform the traditional practical learning facilities and activities.

This contributes to a broader initiative aimed at developing a novel Sustainability Education Framework (ESF), which fosters sustainability values in our learners and educators.

The team’s mission is to seamlessly integrate key sustainability principles into the practical curriculum to emphasise sustainability in labs and create a unique environment that promotes sustainability values.

As Dr Mohamed Maher, Process Control Engineer, said; “It has been an incredible journey working with the team. I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to be part of implementing the sustainability framework in the Chemical Engineering Teaching labs, leading to the very first LEAF Gold award for the Faulty of Engineering.”

Looking ahead

The team is at an exciting phase of its journey towards sustainable development.

They are in the process of implementing a number of innovative solutions to enhance the practical learning experience including a hybrid power system that would enable half of the lab to function on renewable energy, thereby decreasing the lab’s carbon footprint.

Professor Jerry Heng, Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Department of Chemical Engineering stated: “We are immensely proud of this achievement and delighted to witness sustainable framework being implemented, demonstrating the leadership and initiative taken by the Chemical Engineering Teaching labs team, for the present and future.”