Charting our sustainability journey within the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at University College London

Abstract

This article describes a case study of our journey to running more sustainable labs within the Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at University College London (UCL), London, United Kingdom. Through the setting up of a self-assessment team within the division, we asked the key question, ‘what does sustainability mean in science and how will we apply this to our academic Division?’ Our division’s sustainability team took on the challenges to tackle unsustainable practise, primarily within our laboratories. By considering and implementing simple steps within our research department, we have reduced lab waste as well as decreased our overall carbon emission. We have clarified our hallmarks of sustainability and seek to share our changed practices to provide clear and easy guidance for how to make medical research divisions sustainable based on the actions taken in our labs. This study provides guideline on how to make academic research more sustainable by describing simple steps to implement in the laboratories. These steps were described using Division of Surgery and Interventional Science at UCL as a case study. The division’s sustainability team develops sustainable lab practices, which has led to reduction in lab waste and carbon emissions.

The relevance of sustainable laboratory practices

“…In the UK, about 1.44 million animals were used for experiments in 2020. 56 In vivo models oen fail to mimic clinical diseases adequately and thus harm human subjects. [57][58][59][60][61][62] In fact, around 92% of drugs tested in animals as a preclinical step fail to pass the clinical stage.…”

“…63 As the success rate from animal-model based studies to clinical evaluations can be less than 10%, the number of animals should be critically evaluated for ethical as well as sustainability reasons and alternatives considered. 56,[64][65][66] Furthermore, animal facilities can have a considerable impact on the energy consumption of an organization and thus should be reduced in size and optimized.…”

“…3,6 This corresponds to 80-90% of an organization's footprint being associated with Scope 3 emissions. 6,7,25,56 Oen air travel is reported to be the major source of emissions, because it is easily tracked and thus followed, but especially from organizations where all scopes of emissions are reported, other sources such as buildings, electricity, and supply-chain emissions may be equally or more important emission sources. 3,93 The previous data drastically highlight the impact scientic research has on the planet, especially given the fact that researchers of all disciplines only account for 0.1% of the population.…”

“…The university is further outsourcing much data at Google © , which is running on 100% renewable energy since 2016 equalling to zero emissions. 96 Most of the carbon emissions of a university are connected to its educational-and research-practices in natural sciences (between 52 and 70%, 43,56 see Section 2 Environmental Impact of Laboratories). At UG these are located at the Faculty of Science and Engineering covering all research related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with disciplines such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, computational science, life sciences, maths, materials science, pharmacy, physics, and more.…”

A guidebook for sustainability in laboratories

“…For ethical and sustainability reasons, the number of animals used for experiments should be reduced. 80 It has been demonstrated, that the number of animals used in control groups can be reduced by half without losing statistical power, if historical control groups are included in the studies. 81 Animal models often fail to mimic clinical disease adequately and human subjects have been harmed in clinical testing of drugs that were deemed safe by animal studies.…”