Green Labs: How Scientists Can Help Fight Climate Change

The healthcare industry creates 4.4% of the world’s carbon emissions. To put this into perspective, if the healthcare industry were a country, it would be the fifth-largest carbon emitter on the planet. The goal of the healthcare industry is to create new, life-saving treatments for patients, but it also produces a lot of waste that cannot be recycled, such as plastic and chemicals. Additionally, this industry uses a lot of non-renewable energy. The Green Lab Project is a worldwide, 10-year-old program attempting to reduce the carbon emissions caused by the activities of scientists within the healthcare industry. The Green Lab project arrived at Boston Children’s Hospital (BCH) in 2020, at the request of a group of postdocs, graduate students, and employees. The BCH Green Labs group is working to sponsor environment-protecting projects and educate BCH scientists to adopt more responsible, informed, and “greener” work practices. This article will describe ways that BCH scientists are trying to reduce lab waste and energy consumption, including sharing equipment and materials to limit waste production, cleaning freezers regularly, and using outlet timers to avoid wasting energy.