By: Kavin Aadithiyan

How can labs become more sustainable? We spoke with Dumitro Anton, Trinity’s Green Labs Officer, about the rollout of the Green Lab Certification Programme and what it means for researchers across campus. Edited highlights from our interview follow.

Q: How did Green Labs come about? 

So, it started as a student-led initiative. Around 2019, a bunch of undergraduates, PhDs, and post docs got together and made a small working group. They set in process the Green Labs certification, starting with labs in the Institute of Neuroscience. But as students and researchers tend to graduate or move on, it sort of petered out. 

In 2021, when Trinity hired Jane Hackett as Sustainability Manager, it became a priority again. The sustainability team developed a sustainability strategy followed by an action plan, leading to the creation of the position of Green Labs Officer to oversee the development of the programme. 

 Q: What is the aim of the programme? 

The aim of the programme is to bring about behavioural change in labs impacting sustainability. Things such as lighting, waste segregation, water consumption, intensity of equipment use, mode of transport taken by researchers, and so on – these are some of the areas where we try to effect change.

Q: What does the process entail? What role do you play?

The Certification is awarded by My Green Lab (MGL), an external organisation. My role in the process is to bring awareness, help labs enrol, and guide them through the process. But the certification, the platform that it’s done on, all that is taken care of by MGL. 

The process has changed a bit over the years. Earlier, it used to be primarily survey based, but recently My Green Lab 2.0 features an online platform which allows labs to better manage their progress and have more control over the certification.

Q: How do you approach labs about this, or do they approach you themselves?

So the biggest challenge of my job so far is how we reach out to labs. But to take a step back, it’s also tricky to classify what a lab is. It sounds ridiculous when you think about it, but in a research setting, a single room might be shared by multiple Principal Investigators (PIs), so then you can’t call that one lab. We decided that for research groups, a lab is its PI and the group. And for teaching labs, it’s the teaching space.

The next step is onboarding. It’s not a lot of work, but it requires commitment from someone in the team to go through with the process, which would be about an hour or two a week over the course of six months. When we started, there was a lot of enthusiasm and I think we’re still on an upward trajectory of interest, but I feel like it’s starting to plateau. And to be honest, it’s hard to tell if the plateau is because of a lack of interest or of knowledge. My guess is that it’s somewhere in the middle. For the ones that are aware and haven’t joined, we will have to engage with them about the benefits. But the college has committed to the process, so it’s a question of how we get everyone on board. 

Q:  That brings me to my next question – what do labs gain from this?

A sustainable lab operates more efficiently through reduced energy consumption, water use, and waste generation, resulting in lower bills. But also as important is that sustainability is becoming a key criterion in research grants. Funding bodies such as Welcome are already requiring sustainability certification for applicants. 

This signals a shift in how research is evaluated – not just on scientific merit, but also on environmental responsibility. Labs that are certified demonstrate a proactive commitment to sustainability, which can strengthen their position in competitive grant applications.

Q: What has progress been like?

When I started in 2024, there were about 20 certified labs and funding secured for 37 more. We’re now at 45 certified labs, with another 100 or so in the process. In the last few months, I’ve secured funding for 50 more labs, of which we have about 25 slots left. So, if you’re in a lab in Trinity and want to get certified, you can reach out to the Sustainability Office or to Green Labs, and we can assess for suitability and help get your lab certified. 

Q: How do you collect data in terms of the savings that labs are able to achieve? 

That’s actually one of our ongoing challenges, but we’ve made some meaningful progress. A key initiative is the TTMI project, which focuses on the energy consumption of cold storage units, a rather energy-intensive component in labs. Led by PI Adriele Prina-Melo and the TTMI Green Labs team, it explores how sustainable lab practices can reduce energy use in these units. We’ve also looked at fume hoods, where even small things like closing the sash when not in use can lead to measurable energy savings.

However, collecting robust data across labs remains difficult. Many labs are shared spaces with multiple research groups, each operating differently. Shared resources like waste bins and water lines further complicate data collection, as usage isn’t always tracked at the group level.

Q: Would it make sense to collect data from a building perspective? 

It does make sense, and that’s the easiest way to do it but it doesn’t actually tell a lot. For example, we can compare the energy use of buildings against previous years. The problem is that not all labs in them might be certified and so it’s difficult to measure the certification’s impact. And energy consumption might reduce or increase purely because the number of people using it has changed. 

Despite these challenges, we’re committed to improving data transparency and have made progress in identifying key metrics and done pilot projects. Ultimately, having reliable data is essential not just for demonstrating impact, but also for informing future sustainability strategies.

Q: Finally, where do you see the programme in the future? 

Our long-term goal is to have all Trinity labs Green Lab certified. Right now, our primary focus is on wet labs, but we’re expanding our scope to include digital sustainability, ones that work exclusively with data and computing. I’m currently developing a digital sustainability certification, which may be delivered in-house through the Green Labs office.

While we focus heavily on behaviour change, infrastructure also plays a critical role. That part is largely managed by Estates and Facilities, particularly through the Carbon Reduction Manager, but we collaborate closely to ensure our efforts are aligned.

Looking ahead, we want to embed sustainability into the culture of research by integrating Green Lab practices into academic curricula. We’re exploring the development of a 5 credit module that PhD and postgraduate students can take, helping them integrate sustainability into their research from the start. There’s a wealth of relevant information out there, and we want to make it accessible and actionable.

I also hope we maintain the momentum we’ve built. We’ve got the early adopters on board, and now the challenge is to bring everyone else along. But that’s the real work, creating a culture shift across the research community. And that’s exactly what I’m here to do.