Last week, JHU Redoubled its Commitment to Climate Action and Sustainability with the release of the new Climate Action and Sustainability Plan.

GI-Oncology Lab

School of Medicine

King-Wai Yau Lab

School of Medicine

Craig Townsend Lab

Krieger School of Arts & Sciences

For the International Freezer Challenge: 

JHU had 36 entries representing 58 labs across Johns Hopkins University, collectively reducing energy consumption by an estimated 1,067 kWh/day! This is approximately the energy usage of 36 single family homes per day! 

There are 2 labs to highlight with awards in the International Freezer Challenge. Each of these labs will be featured in a fall issue of Lab Manager Magazine, in the My Green Lab and I2SL newsletters, and were recognized at the virtual ceremony in September. Congratulations to both labs!

The GI Oncology/Elizabeth Jaffee Lab in the Oncology Department at SOM, led by James Leatherman, earned the Academic Winning Streak Award, presented to a lab that won an award in 2023 and improved their energy savings the following year. Their efforts conserved an estimated 154 kWh/day!

The King-Wai Yau Lab in the Neuroscience Department at SOM earned the Top Small Sized Lab Award, presented to the lab that saved the most energy amongst labs in the academic sector with less than 10 people. Their efforts in conserving an estimated 114 kWh/day!

For the JHU Freezer Challenge:

This year, JH Facilities & Real Estate and JHHS Facilities  was able to offer an award of $5,000 to top-performing labs at Homewood and the School of Medicine. Congratulations to our winners!

The GI Oncology/Elizabeth Jaffee Lab won the Top Performing Large Lab Award at SOM

The King-Wai Yau Lab won the Top Performing Small Lab at SOM

The Craig Townsend Lab in the Chemistry Dept in KSAS, led by Rongfeng Li, won the Top Performing Lab on the Homewood Campus for their efforts in conserving an estimated 49 kWh/day!

The 2025 Challenge doesn't start until Jan 1, 2025, but all actions you complete between August 2024 and June 2025 can be included - so keep up the good work and sign up for your scoresheet when the are announced! 

Does your lab turn off equipment after use, have automatic lights, utilize outlet timers, or have high efficiency freezers? You likely are already eligible for a Green Labs certification!

Contact sustainability@jh.edu directly with questions or to start the process. 

Learn more here!

"The main motivation [for certification] came from recognizing the significant amount of plastic waste generated daily in the lab, primarily for maintaining sterility in research as we are involved in working with cells.  

Although we realized we couldn't fully eliminate this waste at present, we wanted to reduce our footprint at least by incorporating sustainability in other aspects of our lab functioning. The green lab program provided us with various tools to help offset this effect and getting the certification is a big motivator to keep us continuing our efforts."

Check out Green Labs Ambassador Training to learn more and start your lab off with more sustainable practices safe and beneficial to your experiments and work!

Pictured Below: Green Labs representatives from academic institutions across US and Canada. Over the past 4 years, the number of Green Labs Programs has grown markedly. Thank you for sharing your knowledge and experiences to make labs more sustainable!