Sustainability
Green Labs
The Green Labs Programme is a sustainability initiative spearheaded by CÚRAM investigator Dr Úna FitzGerald, aimed at reducing the environmental impact of laboratory practices. Laboratories are significant consumers of resource, using much more energy, water and plastics than other teaching and research settings. Through the Green Labs initiative, CÚRAM is reducing plastic waste, energy usage and water usage, as well as increasing recycling across its laboratories.
In 2019, CÚRAM became the first laboratory in Europe certified as ‘Green’, by American non-profit, My Green Lab as documented in the video below. To date, a mixture of 70 teaching and research laboratories on-campus, are participating in MGL’s certification programme.
During 2019, Dr FitzGerald developed a 5-ECTS graduate module on ‘Green Lab Principles and Practice’, which was recognised by Alison Paradise, the founder and CEO My Green Lab as a ‘world first’. Already taken by 140 graduates, it covers atmosphere and climate, sustainability & the SDGs, psychology & sociology of climate change and climate change communication, biodiversity & ecosystems, environmental ethics, governance & leadership, plastics, circular economy & doughnut economics, as well as approaches to implementing sustainable practices within labs.
In September 2022, CÚRAM became the first lab in Ireland to be recertified by My Green Lab. For three years (2020-2023), Dr FitzGerald chaired SEAI’s working group for public sector labs, leading subsequently to a first Chair role in the Irish Green Labs (IGL) network, launched on Earth Day, 2022. The IGL network, currently running entirely on voluntary time, supports over 20 organisations within the public and private sectors, including all the HEIs, EPA labs, hospitals (Tallaght, the Coombe, CUH, Maternity), and seven corporate entities (Medtronic, Henkel, Pepsico, Merit Medical, Therapie Fertility Clinic, FBA Labs, Climate 23). CÚRAM has funded and supported the design and maintenance of the Irish Green labs website.
Videos
Galway Green Labs – The time to green our labs is now
