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Green Labs Program

There are quick ways to make your laboratory more sustainable.

Laboratories have a significant environmental impact; join your colleagues in preventing pollution. Caltech Green Labs promotes sustainable laboratory practices related to water, energy, materials, and purchasing. Spark your ideas with the Green Labs Guide 2023.

Check out the Green Lab Certification to find ways that you can make your laboratory more sustainable. If you complete this scorecard, send it to sustainability@caltech.edu for official Green Lab certification and recognition including a plaque for your laboratory.

Find out how to donate, recycle, and safely dispose of your lab's extra materials and waste. If you need an ultra-low-temperature freezer, or yours is aging, learn about rebates for high-efficiency models and the effects of a slightly higher set point.

A person in a blue button-down shirt smiles lightly toward the camera, flanked by cabinets and a window.
Viewpoint from biology professor David Prober

"Our lab feels that we have a social responsibility to care about our impact on the planet: how we use single-use plastics, how we think of energy usage, the kinds of reagents we order, etc. While the work scientists do often requires non-environmentally friendly choices (for example: the use of gloves to maintain sterility for experiments), we believe we make a more significant, longer-lasting impact if we also make efforts to reduce the negative effects of our research on the environment. By making sustainable choices, we not only save money and resources for our lab, we also minimize our environmental impact and advance scientific progress, all while protecting the very thing we study: life on Earth."

Image, top of page: Visiting undergraduate Emily Echevarria-Perez conducted research in the laboratory of biology professor David Prober in summer 2022. The Prober laboratory achieved platinum status in the Green Labs program.