19 ETH labs certified by GreenLabs for their sustainability efforts!

End of January 2024, over 80 representatives from around 60 laboratories from diverse research fields across ETH Zurich convened at the Dozentenfoyer for the inaugural certification ceremony of the GreenLabs pilot. The pilot was launched by ETH Sustainability and Greenlabs Zurich, an organization that promotes sustainable lab practices across both ETH and UZH. The Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (external page LEAF) was used to assess the laboratories¡¯ sustainability along categories like waste, sample & chemical management but also people and research quality. This assessment not only identified areas for improvement within individual labs but also presented opportunities to enhance overall sustainability at ETH. Additionally, the improvements could already save several thousand CHF while at the same time avoiding around 10 tons of CO2e emissions.

Why is this important?
According to the latest ETH greenhouse gas reporting, laboratory consumables, equipment, and tools contribute around one third of ETH Z¨¹rich¡¯s indirect emissions. Additionally, laboratories require significant amounts of energy and produce a lot of waste. Thus, laboratories are a key lever for increasing sustainability at ETH.

What happened at the event?
The event was kicked off with a presentation of ETH Sustainability and GreenLabs. This was followed by an introduction to LEAF and an insightful keynote by Magdalena Klotz, postdoctoral researcher in Ecological Systems Design at D-BAUG, on the opportunities and challenges of plastic recycling in Switzerland. The event was crowned by a festive handover of the certificates to the 19 labs (11x Bronze, 3x Silver, 5x gold). The event closed with an ap¨¦ro to foster the exchange and collaboration.

What is happening next?
Over the next months, GreenLabs will continue to review laboratories, with the goal of reviewing every lab at ETH. Additionally, many great existing initiatives like return-to-supplier programs, detailed onboarding templates and engaging teaching formats were identified that will be rolled out and made available to the community. However, also some challenges have been identified that have to be tackled centrally ¨C for example, waste management, equipment sharing, and chemical management. Therefore, working groups with relevant stakeholders will be set up to drive initiatives on this.

How can you get engaged?
You can either directly start the LEAF submission within your lab or join ETH GreenLabs.
To start your LEAF submission:

1. Register on the external page LEAF platform using your ETH email ().
2. Create your lab or join it (if it already exists).
3. Take action: Once the lab has been created successfully, you can take action. By clicking on ¡°Manage Award Criteria¡± and/or ¡°Manage Calculators¡±, the measures for more sustainable laboratory practices can now be viewed and edited.
4. Certification: Once you have met all criteria for a certification level (bronze, silver, or gold), you can submit it for assessment (a poll has shown this takes between 1-10 hours per lab, depending on the level of ambition).

To join one of the central working groups or ask any questions you may have, please reach out to .

Curious to know what else is going on about sustainability at ETH Zurich and get invited to events? Sign up to the external page sustainability community list!