 Partha Krishnan and Darren Cornell of Sanofi Pasteur pictured with Nathalye Terrero-Martinez from Thermo Fisher. This ULT Freezer is set to -70 C. Hello again Freezer Challenge competitors! Today we bring you an inspiring story from a group participating in this year's competition: the Sanofi Pasteur R&D group in Cambridge Massachusetts. They reached out to us and wanted to share the progress they've made this year, and we hope this will inspire you to continue dedicating time and energy to the Freezer Challenge and laboratory sustainability efforts more generally. Sustainable lab initiatives implemented at Sanofi Pasteur R&D, in Cambridge Massachusetts in the United States Written by Partha Krishnan Green Purchasing: We have partnered with Finance and Purchasing to put a system in place where orders for new freezers are funneled through the EHS department for sourcing of freezers with lower Global Warming Potential (GWP). We have also partnered with Eversource (our local utility company) to get credits for the purchasing of new energy efficient freezers. "Chilling Up" ULT Freezers: Thanks largely to the evidence-based resources available through My Green Lab, we were able to convince the lab heads that a bulk of our -80 C freezers can be set to -70 C with no concerns of losing sample integrity. Inventory and Maintenance: We now have a dedicated team to perform periodic maintenance of freezers and another dedicated person to perform freezer inventories. This has made a huge difference in getting freezer management under control. Development of a Site Green Team: Our Green Team is completely organically grown with new members recruited solely by their motivation to make the site green! Some recent achievements by the team are switching to all compostable cups and cutlery at the cafeteria and increasing recycling in labs. Take-Home Message: Small consistent steps taken in the right direction lead to huge sustainable gains down the road rather than a big overnight strategy that might fail! “ You don’t have to do a lot to do a lot.” Everyone still has a little over two months to dedicate to the Freezer Challenge --keep up the great work! Unlike in previous years, we do not have any plans to extend the deadline for this year's challenge, so be sure you submit your scoresheets back to us by July 1 by clicking "Finish" on the final page. Your scoresheet will not count unless you have submitted it back to us!
You are able to access and modify your scoresheet as many times as you want between now and July 1. When you try to access your scoresheet, if you get a message from Brilliant Assessments saying you can no longer access your scoresheet, this probably means you accidentally submitted it back to us too early. Email info@mygreenlab.org if you need us to reopen your scoresheet so you can continue editing! Continue to reach out if you have questions or issues!
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 Welcome to this next installment of the Freezer Challenge Blog! You'll periodically see messages such as this between now and the end of the challenge on July 1. We now have over 150 labs from 18 different countries participating in this year's competition. Amazing!
There are three months left of the Freezer Challenge, still giving you plenty of time to implement sustainable, efficient, and energy saving actions with your lab's refrigerators and freezers. Remember, you don't have to do all of the actions on the scoresheet - do what makes sense for your lab, what you have time for, or what you wish to prioritize. The more actions you take, the higher your score (and likely higher energy savings too). If you haven't already, it may be helpful to make a plan with your lab on how to tackle the remaining three months of the Freezer Challenge. And if you haven't yet enlisted others in your lab to help you, now is a great time to reach out! Here are some ideas of how to approach the next few months:
The Freezer Challenge scoresheet is designed so you can return to it as many times as you want between now and July 1. When you try to access your scoresheet, if you get a message from Brilliant Assessments saying you can no longer access your scoresheet, this probably means you accidentally submitted it back to us too early. Email info@mygreenlab.org if you need us to reopen your scoresheet so you can continue editing! Good luck! Compete for the "Top Organization" Awards by encouraging your colleagues to join the challenge too!3/3/2021  Two months into the 2021 Freezer Challenge, My Green Lab and I2SL hope that you are making progress through your scoresheets and feeling accomplished as you implement best practices that benefit energy conservation, sample access, and long-term sample integrity.
The graph above is a snapshot of the labs that have registered for the Freezer Challenge as of the end of February by country. Already 121 labs have registered! But if the numbers from your region of the world seem a bit light, why not tell some of your colleagues at your research institution or beyond about the Freezer Challenge too? There are two categories of awards for the Freezer Challenge - those that go to individual laboratories that take significant action with their cold storage units, and awards that go to entire research institutions. These "Organizational Awards" can only be won if multiple labs from the same institution compete in the Freezer Challenge! Tell colleagues in your department, college, floor, or research area about how to join the Freezer Challenge too, if you want to be in the running for the Top Organization Awards. Remember you can also pull text and images from the media kit we have put together (at the bottom of the Freezer Challenge Resources page) to share via email or social media with your colleagues. Also, if you haven't checked out the articles on the Resources page, go for it! Many thanks to all of you for helping to make this Freezer Challenge the most impactful one yet!  Welcome to the first blog post of the 2021 Freezer Challenge! These posts will hit your inbox periodically over the next five months with tips, interesting factoids, and updates on the challenge.
The following is an excerpt from an article originally published in Lab Manager in January 2021: Bringing laboratory cold storage out of the shadows and into the light They lurk in hallways and equipment rooms, ever-present, ever-consuming, absolutely essential to the vast majority of scientific research endeavors, and yet usually neglected unless they cause trouble. Laboratory refrigerators and freezers should be recognized for what they are: incredibly useful tools and also outsized energy consumers. At least 58,000 ultralow temperature freezers (-70°C), 74,000 -20°C freezers, and 94,000 refrigerators exist within the scientific sector in California alone, consuming a combined conservative estimate of 780 Gwh/year. In California alone. That is the approximate energy use of 63,000 homes over the course of a year. Imagine the global impact of this type of equipment. The International Laboratory Freezer Challenge, now in its fifth year, seeks to help scientists realize the variety of benefits that result from dedicating a small amount of time and effort to their refrigerators and freezers each year. These benefits include:
What began as a small competition rooted in sound best practices has now grown to global scale, attracting the participation of 88 different research institutions in 2020 alone. It isn’t too late to join the 2021 Freezer Challenge either—there are still five months left before this year’s deadline of July 1, 2021. By participating, you can be a part of the 9.9 million kWh/year saved over the past five years. That’s enough to offset the carbon emissions associated with driving over 15 million miles! Winners of the Freezer Challenge are recognized at the annual International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories (I2SL) Conference and featured in an article in the journal Nature. View the full article on Lab Manager here.  Sustainable Procurement & the ACT Label Not only is Eppendorf the Gold Sponsor of the International Laboratory Freezer Challenge this year, but they also just went through the process of getting four models of ultra-low temperature freezers that they manufacture ACT Labeled. What is the ACT Label, you ask? It is another program of My Green Lab! The opportunity to reduce the environmental impact of laboratories through smarter purchases is tremendous. The ACT label is the premier eco-nutrition label for laboratory products, including consumables, chemicals, and equipment. By emphasizing accountability, consistency, and transparency (ACT) around manufacturing, energy and water use, packaging, and end-of-life, ACT makes it easy to choose safe, sustainable products. ACT-Labeled products are independently audited by SMS Collaborative and verified by My Green Lab. You can view all the chemicals, consumables, and equipment that are now ACT Labeled in the ACT Database. Eppendorf has been incredibly supportive of the Freezer Challenge for many years, and now they are showing further dedication to the laboratory sustainability movement by participating in the ACT Label Program. "The ACT Label provides scientists in labs all over the world guidance about the environmental impact of the products used in their lab. We at Eppendorf see the ACT Label as an additional building block for a sustainable future, especially since all supplier data are reviewed by SMS Collaborative and My Green Lab as third parties. We see a growing number of questions and requests from users worldwide for information about the sustainability of products from Eppendorf – the ACT label is one of our answers. We are proud to have the first ACT Labeled ULT freezers." Statement by Jan Bebermeier, PhD, Global Marketing Manager at Eppendorf AG in Germany. Congratulations to Eppendorf!! There are just **two** weeks left of the Freezer Challenge! Turn those scoresheets in! Deadline is August 1, 2020.  |
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The Freezer Challenge is a program coordinated by the non-profit organizations
My Green Lab and the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories, and sponsored by various companies with an interest in promoting the most energy efficient cold storage options.
My Green Lab and the International Institute for Sustainable Laboratories, and sponsored by various companies with an interest in promoting the most energy efficient cold storage options.
