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Green Labs

Labs consume overwhelming amounts of resources.

Are you concerned about environment? Do you recycle or save energy at home? Do you do it in the lab?

Labs produce a lot of waste.  It's estimated that every year the plastic waste alone from laboratories could cover the state of Rhode Island.  Although much of this waste is hazardous, a lot of it can be reused or recycled (http://www.mygreenlab.org/).

Labs are also major consumers of electric power.

"Laboratories consume nearly 5x more energy than a typical office space, and are often the largest consumers of energy on any given campus or at any given institution" (http://www.mygreenlab.org/).

Data from Sustain VU: "In 2012, Vanderbilt consumed over 392,000 megawatt-hours of electricity. That is the same amount of electricity consumed by almost 25,000 homes in the Nashville area last year. Vanderbilt University spends approximately $37 million per year on energy consumption".

Benefits from recycling

$$$

Data from Sustain VU: "Fiscally, it costs the University more money to dispose of a ton of garbage than it does a typical ton of recycling. Also, we are paid for many of our recyclable goods. Rebates earned from recycling programs go back into paying for the recycling program".

Make the planet a better place

 

Join the effort of other universities 

There is a lot of ways to be mindful about environment in the lab space. It will not take much time. You just need to change your practices once to benefit our planet and save money.

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