| Overall Rating | Gold |
|---|---|
| Overall Score | 76.41 |
| Liaison | Krista Bailey |
| Submission Date | Dec. 12, 2023 |
Pennsylvania State University
IN-19: Green Laboratory Program
| Status | Score | Responsible Party |
|---|---|---|
|
0.50 / 0.50 |
Krista
Bailey Sustainable Campus Strategist Sustainability Institute |
Does the institution have or participate in a green laboratory program?:
Does the institution’s green laboratory program address the following?:
| Yes or No | |
| Energy conservation and efficiency, e.g., fume hood ("shut the sash") and freezer maintenance programs | Yes |
| Water conservation and efficiency | Yes |
| Chemical use and disposal | Yes |
| Materials management, e.g., green purchasing guidelines and recycling and reuse programs | Yes |
| Training for lab users on sustainable practices | Yes |
A brief description of the institution's green laboratory program:
In June 2021 a group from Penn State Sustainability, lab managers, and researchers on campus asked: What would a Sustainable Lab program look like at Penn State?
The result was the conceptualization of the novel Sustainable Lab Ambassador (SLA) program. The proposed SLA program utilizes the My Green Lab (MGL) professional certification process as a living lab for students to engage in evaluating, improving, and assessing the sustainability of laboratories on campus.
In the summer of 2022, the project received funding to launch the pilot SLA project in the fall of 2022 with five student ambassadors working in five different labs.
Project Goals
Exploring and assessing the anticipated mutually beneficial role that an individual undergraduate SLA can play during a research lab’s MGL certification effort and determining the levels to which the ambassador-lab pairing strategy benefits the student and the lab.
Identifying the prerequisite introductory knowledge needed to implement sustainable research laboratory practices and developing this educational content into a prerequisite Introduction to Sustainability in the Research Lab microcredential badge.
Developing a series of skill-building tasks, educational activities, and their associated learning objectives to be accomplished by SLAs to support and augment their lab’s certification effort.
Developing a Carbon Footprint Analysis of a Research Lab microcredential badge that compares before/after energy usage data to quantify the impact of sustainability interventions in the laboratory.
Determining the effectiveness of having SLA support for the MGL certification process by comparing metrics with labs who do not have this support.
Website URL where information about the green laboratory program is available:
Additional documentation to support the submission:
Data source(s) and notes about the submission:
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