From Left to Right: Chris Baker (Teaching Laboratory Supervisor), Anna Farlow (Senior Technician) and Becki Cook (LEAF champion)

Teaching Technical Team

The LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework) was introduced to Sussex University in January 2023 and by July both teaching teams in the School of Life Sciences had achieved their Bronze Awards. Other Life Sciences research labs have since achieved Bronze awards.

The Department of Chemistry teaching technicians have now achieved the first Silver LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework) award on campus.

The LEAF programme aims to assess, encourage and improve sustainability and good working practices in a step-by-step, manageable and measurable way to encourage lab users to take part and improve efficiency in all areas. The team led by LEAF champion, technician Becki Cook, considered the multiple criteria such as people, purchasing, equipment, sample and chemical management and waste and found ways to improve their working and delivery methods for teaching in the chemistry labs.

Dr Rob Fowler, Associate Director of Technical Operations is the institutional lead for LEAF and says:

“Our Technical staff have worked tirelessly to improve the laboratory sustainability, and they continue to yield greater successes, being the university leaders in LEAF. Congratulations on these results, and thank you for your ongoing dedication to improving sustainability throughout the University of Sussex.”

Chemistry technician, Becki Cook shared her thoughts on the ongoing sustainability challenges in the teaching labs.

"Whilst working towards our silver LEAF award, we have been streamlining laboratory procedures to reduce waste as well as online or cloud storage of unnecessary documents. We have also improved communication of sustainable practices within the lab through signage and student scripts. We have been fortunate enough to purchase recirculating water chillers and standalone regulated vacuum pumps to use with our numerous rotary evaporators, which has reduced energy consumption for this process.

Laboratory spaces can use up to 8x more energy than a typical office space due to the high energy requirement of ventilation systems and specialist equipment. It’s important to make conscious improvements to the efficiency of our lab spaces to try and keep the environmental impact to a minimum. I also think it’s important to raise awareness of sustainable lab practices to students so that they can continue these practices throughout their studies and future career.

Next up, we’re going for Gold! This will involve auditing new and existing experiments to reduce toxic chemicals and use ‘greener’ solvents where possible. We will also be further streamlining chemical use and storage using LabCup, our new inventory system, and promoting the reuse of lab materials where appropriate."

If you would like to sign your lab up to this programme, please go to https://app.ucl.ac.uk/leaf/leaf_external and register using your email ending in @sussex.ac.uk. You can then apply to create a lab.

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