2017 Freezer Challenge Winners
Over 200 labs representing 34 organizations across North American competed in the Freezer Challenge, which encouraged researchers to implement best practices around cold storage management. Labs received points for taking actions such as properly maintaining freezers and refrigerators, discarding old samples, and retiring unneeded units. Winners were determined based on the number of points they received as well as the amount of energy they saved.
The organizational winners of the Freezer Challenge were:
UC San Diego saved an estimated 500,000 kWh/year, Lilly saved an estimated 130,400 kWh/year, the CDC saved an estimated 367,400 kWh/year, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center saved an estimated 25,000 kWh/year.
Honorable mention goes to CU Boulder, the University of Virginia, Johnson & Johnson, Genentech, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab for their outstanding efforts.
The individual laboratory winners were:
The Hoekstra Lab saved an estimated 13,000 kWh/year, the Baker Lab saved an estimated 34,000 kWh/year, and the Elemental Analysis Laboratory saved an estimated 64,500 kWh/year.
Honorable mention in the individual lab category goes to the Vernet Lab and McCulloch Lab from UC San Diego, the Schmolzer Lab from the University of Alberta, the Riddell Lab from Eli Lilly and Company, the Weiner Lab from the CDCP, and the Joint Genome Institute from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. These labs went above and beyond in their efforts to improve cold storage management and to reduce the environmental impact of their labs.
Congratulations to all of our Freezer Challenge winners!! Together, Freezer Challenge participants saved ~2.7 million kWh/year and discarded over 200,000 samples. Through discarding samples many labs were able to retire freezers or avoid the purchase of a new freezer/refrigerator. The energy savings realized from this Challenge are equivalent to reducing carbon emissions by ~1,900 metric tons.
All Freezer Challenge winners will be honored at the I2SL conference in Boston on October 16, 2017. And look for their photos in the October 5th 2017 edition of Nature!
The Freezer Challenge is a joint program run by My Green Lab and the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL), and was made possible through the generosity of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Stirling Ultracold, Panasonic, Lilly, Labcon, and DryBank Labs.
Over 200 labs representing 34 organizations across North American competed in the Freezer Challenge, which encouraged researchers to implement best practices around cold storage management. Labs received points for taking actions such as properly maintaining freezers and refrigerators, discarding old samples, and retiring unneeded units. Winners were determined based on the number of points they received as well as the amount of energy they saved.
The organizational winners of the Freezer Challenge were:
- University of California San Diego
- Eli Lilly and Company
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center
UC San Diego saved an estimated 500,000 kWh/year, Lilly saved an estimated 130,400 kWh/year, the CDC saved an estimated 367,400 kWh/year, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center saved an estimated 25,000 kWh/year.
Honorable mention goes to CU Boulder, the University of Virginia, Johnson & Johnson, Genentech, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab for their outstanding efforts.
The individual laboratory winners were:
- The Hoekstra Lab from Harvard University
- The Baker Lab from Eli Lilly and Company
- The Elemental Analysis Laboratory from the CDCP
The Hoekstra Lab saved an estimated 13,000 kWh/year, the Baker Lab saved an estimated 34,000 kWh/year, and the Elemental Analysis Laboratory saved an estimated 64,500 kWh/year.
Honorable mention in the individual lab category goes to the Vernet Lab and McCulloch Lab from UC San Diego, the Schmolzer Lab from the University of Alberta, the Riddell Lab from Eli Lilly and Company, the Weiner Lab from the CDCP, and the Joint Genome Institute from the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. These labs went above and beyond in their efforts to improve cold storage management and to reduce the environmental impact of their labs.
Congratulations to all of our Freezer Challenge winners!! Together, Freezer Challenge participants saved ~2.7 million kWh/year and discarded over 200,000 samples. Through discarding samples many labs were able to retire freezers or avoid the purchase of a new freezer/refrigerator. The energy savings realized from this Challenge are equivalent to reducing carbon emissions by ~1,900 metric tons.
All Freezer Challenge winners will be honored at the I2SL conference in Boston on October 16, 2017. And look for their photos in the October 5th 2017 edition of Nature!
The Freezer Challenge is a joint program run by My Green Lab and the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL), and was made possible through the generosity of Thermo Fisher Scientific, Stirling Ultracold, Panasonic, Lilly, Labcon, and DryBank Labs.
