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Greenlab Zurich Group

LEAF

Help us drive sustainable research - become a pilot laboratory for LEAF at UZH!

Laboratory operations need a lot of resources, including consumables, reagents, space, and electricity – we want to make sure they’re used efficiently!

The Greenlab Zurich group is organizing a pilot run of the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework (LEAF), a tool to evaluate resource use in labs. The Sustainability Team and the MNF Sustainability Commission support this pilot. It would be great if your laboratory would participate in this pilot!

The pilot study has three aims:

  1. Enable you to assess the environmental impact of your lab and provide you with concrete recommendations on how to make your lab more sustainable.
  2. Foster connections between sustainability-minded researchers.
  3. Collect real-life data on sustainable research to inform future UZH policy.

What is LEAF?

LEAF is a tool created by University College London to assess sustainable research practices. It is used at 80 universities worldwide. Laboratory members fill out a questionnaire to assess resource use in their group and can set themselves targets. The tool gives recommendations on how to make laboratory practices more sustainable. Based on current practices and improvements, your laboratory can be awarded a certificate in one of three levels (Bronze, Silver, or Gold). A calculator allows to estimate carbon and budget savings.

Erreichbare Zertifikate bei LEAF
Zoom

Who can participate?

Participation is open to any researchers at UZH from all faculties. LEAF is primarily aimed at “Wet-Lab” laboratory spaces. We run this pilot together with ETH Zurich, which started its pilot this spring and has already 30 laboratories registered.

How much work is participation for me?

Participating in the LEAF pilot will require a one-time investment of 1 – 10 hours to fill the questionnaire and calculator, in addition to the implementation of measures in the individual laboratories. Multiple researchers from the same lab can sign up and share the work. You will receive valuable information on how to improve efficiency and sustainability in your lab, others interested in sustainable research and the unique opportunity to contribute directly to UZHs Sustainability Policy.

You can find additional information in ourhandout about the pilot study. (PDF, 141 KB).

How do I join?

  1. Register your laboratory under this link.  Please use your [first].[last]@uzh.ch email address so you can be matched with the institutional license
  2. Decide together with your group, which level of certification (Bronze, Silver or Gold) you would like to aim for.
  3. Fill the questionnaire and the relevant calculators, and submit them on the platform by the end of September 2024.
  4. We will conduct lab visits in October 2024 to see in person what  you have achieved.
  5. In November 2024 we will certify the succesfull labs and celebrate them with an Apero, concluding this pilot study of LEAF at UZH.

Get in touch via our contact form!

LEAF Pilot at ETH Zurich

The Pilot study at ETH is running from June 2023  - June 2025. Signing up is still possible. Additional information here.