The University of Colorado Green Labs Program: Engaging Laboratory Scientists in Conservation and Promoting a Culture of Sustainability in Laboratories
Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, Ph.D., University of Colorado Boulder
The University of Colorado (CU) Green Labs Program was created in 2009 at the University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) to promote conservation and identify opportunities to reduce resource consumption in an estimated 400 laboratories on CU Boulder's campus. Like other research institutes, CU Boulder's laboratories are a highly valued and respected part of campus for the intellectual innovation and discovery that results from first-rate research occurring in those laboratories. However, like other research institutes, these laboratories are also large resource consumers with an abundance of opportunities for reducing and avoiding resource use. Many of these opportunities directly relate to how laboratory members use their equipment, perform experimental processes, and plan for future research needs. To address these opportunities for conservation at the occupant level, the CU Green Labs Program is engaging scientists in conservation by establishing laboratory eco-leader representatives in individual laboratories, with the goal of having an eco-leader in every laboratory on campus. An eco-leader is a laboratory member who cares about resource consumption and would like to encourage the efficient use of energy, water, and other resources in his or her laboratory. Thus far, 25 percent of campus laboratories at CU Boulder have eco-leader representatives.
Through eco-leaders, the CU Green Labs Program reaches out to laboratories to obtain and provide conservation ideas, encourage and incentivize conservation (through contests, appreciation, recognition, and awards), and educate laboratory members on the extensive use of resources by particular equipment and processes in laboratories. Such education is frequently performed on the personal level, but much is also done through presentations as well as posters and signage created at the CU Environmental Center, which is also one of the key partners, supporters, and initiators of the CU Green Labs Program.
During this presentation, the speaker will focus on why it is important to engage scientists in conservation, the structure of the eco-leader aspect of the CU Green Labs Program, advice and suggestions on how to create a similar eco-leader network at other campuses, and the conservation opportunities at CU Boulder that have resulted from engaging scientists. In particular, the speaker will emphasize CU Green Labs' campaign to turn laboratory equipment off when not in use, which is not only about energy savings, but also about changing the atmosphere in laboratories and mindset of scientists to include resource consumption considerations in their research.
Biography:
Kathryn Ramirez-Aguilar, Ph.D., is the manager of the CU Green Labs Program at CU Boulder, a program she has been building and creating for the past two years. Dr. Ramirez-Aguilar has 15 years of laboratory research experience within the fields of biochemistry, analytical chemistry, and organic chemistry. Dr. Ramirez-Aguilar graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in chemistry from the College of William & Mary, and was the recipient of an American Chemical Society Analytical Division Fellowship for her Ph.D. studies at CU Boulder in analytical chemistry. Dr. Ramirez-Aguilar received a National Research Service Award from the National Institutes of Health for postdoctoral studies in biochemistry at CU Boulder, where she stayed on as a researcher and laboratory manager after her fellowship ended. Working as a research scientist, Dr. Ramirez-Aguilar saw a real need for a program to engage scientists in conservation. Following the birth of her twin daughters and her hope for their future, Dr. Ramirez-Aguilar's passion grew to promote change and create a model program focused on resource conservation in laboratories.