University of Washington, Seattle
IN-1: Innovation 1

The University of Washington is known for its research programs. In the 2014 fiscal year, the UW received more than $1.3 billion dollars in research funding, more than any other American public university. That research translates into a need for laboratory space on campus - the UW has more than 4,500 labs. Those labs also require large amounts of resources. On average, a lab will use about five times as much energy as a campus office. At the University of Washington, labs comprise about 22 percent of the building space, but use about 65 percent of the energy. There is also often less of a focus on operational sustainability in labs than in other areas of the university. The Green Laboratory Certification Program aims to help raise awareness of sustainability issues in labs across the UW by recognizing labs that follow sustainable practices and by providing resources on sustainable practices that are available to all labs on campus. More than 60 labs across the UW have been certified since the Green Laboratory Certification program began in 2013. The program includes an online form labs submit regarding their green practices, with questions determined by a committee of stakeholders across campus, such as the School of Public Health, College of the Environment, College of Engineering, College of Arts & Sciences, Capital Planning & Development, Environmental Health and Safety and many others. The Green Lab criteria includes assessing energy use, recycling, chemicals, communication, purchasing, water and travel. Labs must meet a minimum level of green practice to be certified at a Gold, Silver or Bronze level. During the 2014-2015 academic year, a research team from the Department of Occupational and Environmental Health Sciences (DOEHS) used a campus research grant to study how the certification was working and ways to improve (http://green.uw.edu/gsf/project/2022). The study looked at 20 labs in DOEHS and identified barriers the labs faced in reaching the standard for Green Lab Certification through interviews, waste audits and purchasing records. The study identified and implemented intervention and outreach methods which led to 18 of the 20 labs reaching Green Lab certification. The lessons learned through this study are now being applied for campus-wide outreach.