Reducing the environmental footprint of laboratory research using visual communications: A pilot study in Spain

Addressing the environmental impact of laboratory research provides a meaningful opportunity for workplace-level mitigation. However, in Spain, the importance of sustainability in research is only starting to be recognised at a national level. We developed a scalable, visual-oriented communications strategy that was designed with input from scientific staff and included a live seminar and a coherent set of graphic materials. Five pillars were targeted: three key areas of consumption (energy, water, and plastic use), procurement, and colleague engagement. The scheme was piloted in two of the largest biomedical research centres in Spain: the Severo Ochoa Molecular Biology Centre (CBM) and the Spanish National Centre for Biotechnology (CNB). The pilot engaged 50 laboratories and services across both centres, of which 34 were followed up for 5 months. The results indicate engagement with sustainability measures and shifts toward best practice across metrics, including equipment switch-off, water use, plastic item reuse, and purchasing decisions. During the follow-up period, 23% of participants adopted new measures related to freezer maintenance, decluttering, or sample organization, 55% removed old data from storage to save energy, 100% reduced their use of lifts, and 94% discussed research sustainability with their laboratory/group. The findings also revealed key areas for improvement, including the management of shared resources and resistance to change protocols. These results offer a wide range of quantitative and qualitative insights to guide further efforts and scaling at regional and national levels. O_FIG O_LINKSMALLFIG WIDTH=200 HEIGHT=114 SRC="FIGDIR/small/675379v1_ufig1.gif" ALT="Figure 1"> View larger version (37K): org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@b50baeorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@11ccdeorg.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@a13b46org.highwire.dtl.DTLVardef@13a9b0b_HPS_FORMAT_FIGEXP M_FIG C_FIG Sustainability spotlightThis paper describes a scalable, visual-oriented communications strategy that can be used to promote sustainable behaviours in research laboratories. We present pilot results indicating engagement in sustainability and shifts toward best practice across metrics. Our work contributes to UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 9 (industry and infrastructure) and SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production).