Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A research consortium requires every participating lab to hold at least Bronze-level green lab certification at proposal stage.
- Is an instance
An institutional sustainability office publishes a public map of all certified labs on campus.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A personal pledge by a researcher to recycle pipette tip boxes is not certification.
- Not an instance
A green-building plaque on the laboratory building covers infrastructure, not lab operations.
Editorial commentary
Green lab certification is the umbrella concept covering schemes that audit a single laboratory unit (rather than an institution or building) against sustainability criteria. Certification typically expires after one or two years and must be renewed, encouraging continuous improvement. Increasingly, funders and corporate research customers ask grant applicants or contract research organisations to declare current certification status as part of due diligence. Certification badges are also used as a recruitment and engagement tool by principal investigators.
References
- University College London LEAF programme; My Green Lab Certification.
My Green Lab Certification
My Green Lab’s certification programme scores a laboratory’s practices via self-assessment against sustainability criteria and awards one of five tiers — Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Green — with higher tiers requiring progressively higher assessment scores, up to roughly 80% for the top “Green” tier. Certification is valid for two years before it must be renewed, which is the mechanism that keeps it an ongoing improvement programme rather than a one-time badge.
LEAF (Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework)
LEAF was developed at University College London and, unlike My Green Lab, is structured around three tiers — Bronze, Silver, and Gold. The Bronze tier covers foundational, low-cost practices: freezer temperature optimisation, fume-hood sash management, equipment shutdown protocols, recycling, lighting, and water conservation. Silver builds on this with research-life-cycle assessment, supplier engagement, and staff training/advocacy requirements. Both LEAF and My Green Lab assess laboratories across broadly similar domains — energy, waste, water, purchasing, equipment, and people/culture — but differ in tier structure, assessment mechanics, and institutional adoption patterns; see CASRAI’s overview of sustainable laboratory operations for a fuller comparison of the two programmes.
References
- University College London LEAF programme; My Green Lab Certification.
- RSC Sustainability, ‘Lab sustainability programs LEAF and My Green Lab: impact, user experience & suitability’.
Also known as
Green lab accreditation · Sustainable lab certification
Machine-readable encodings
Use in your systems
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