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Integrating sustainability into scientific research

Nature Reviews Methods Primers volume 2, Article number: 35 (2022) Cite this article

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Laboratories have a large environmental impact, with high levels of resource consumption and waste generation. In this article, I discuss some of the actionable strategies that can bring real and impactful improvements, encompassing education, community engagement and the adoption of best practices by researchers. Building a global culture of sustainability in science will be crucial to reducing the carbon footprint of laboratories.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. My Green Lab, San Diego, CA, USA

    Namrata Jain

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  1. Namrata Jain
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Correspondence to Namrata Jain.

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Competing interests

N.J. is the marketing manager for the non-profit organization My Green Lab.

Additional information

Related links

2022 IPCC report: https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/04/1115452

Bringing Efficiency To Research (BETR) Grants: https://betrgrants.weebly.com/

Design Principles for Sustainable Green Chemistry & Engineering: https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/greenchemistry/principles/design-principles-booklet.html

Harvard shut the sash program: https://green.harvard.edu/programs/green-labs/shut-sash-program

Independent study by My Green Lab: https://www.mygreenlab.org/blog-beaker/my-green-lab-measures-carbon-impact-of-biotech-and-pharma

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)’s climate report: https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/08/1097362

International Laboratory Freezer Challenge: https://www.freezerchallenge.org/

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Jain, N. Integrating sustainability into scientific research. Nat Rev Methods Primers 2, 35 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-022-00126-6

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